According to the Turkish news portal OdaTV, Abu al-Hassan al-Qurashi, head of the organisation since last March, was reportedly arrested in Istanbul during a secret international operation.

Abu al-Hassan al-Qurashi, appointed last March as successor to Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi as head of Daesh, has been arrested in the Turkish capital of Istanbul during a secret international operation. This was made public by the renowned Turkish journalist Toygun Atilla - who has important relations with the Ottoman police - on the news portal OdaTV. 

According to Atilla, the arrest of the Islamist leader took place last week at the house where he was hiding in a neighbourhood of the capital, which has not yet been released to the media. After police forces had placed al-Hassan al-Qurashi under surveillance for several days, anti-terrorist police and national intelligence officers - led by police chief Zafer Aktaş - stormed the house and captured him without any resistance. 

Although other media outlets such as Bloomberg have so far been unable to verify the identity of the detainee, several officials have backed up these claims by explaining that he is "the man they believe has led the extremist organisation since the assassination of its former leader".

Following the operation, which was planned and carried out in the utmost secrecy, al-Hassan al-Qurashi was subjected to interrogation, which, according to OdaTV, has yielded vital data and information about the terrorist organisation. 

This arrest of what could become the most ephemeral leader of ISIS since 2014 - when Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi proclaimed himself the first caliph of the self-styled Islamic State - would consolidate Turkey as one of the key countries in the global fight against terrorism. Istanbul has been making many important efforts in this regard in recent years.