Erdogan says Turkey killed ISIS leader in Syria

May 1 (UPI) -- President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that Turkey's intelligence agency killed the leader of the Islamic State in Syria over the weekend.

Erdogan said Turkey had been tracking Abual-Hussein al-Husseini Al-Qurshi for "a long time" before its National Intelligence Organization, or MIT, carried out a mission to "neutralize" him on Saturday.

"This person was neutralized in an operation carried out by the MIT yesterday," Erdogan said on Sunday. "We will continue our struggle with terrorist organizations without any discrimination."

Turkey said the Islamic State has killed more than 300 people there and injured "hundreds more" through suicide bombings and armed assaults.

Al-Qurshi came the leader of the Islamic State in October after the Free Syrian Army killed the former leader Abu al-Hasan al-Hashmi al-Hashmi.

The announcement comes two weeks before Turkey conducts a national election on May 14. Turkey is still recovering from a devastating earthquake and a currency crisis.

In April, U.S. Central Command said its forces killed ISIS senior leader Aydd Ahmad al-Jabouri during a strike in Syria. At the time, the command said the strike was "unilateral" and not done jointly with other supporting forces which had been commonly the case.

U.S. Central Command said in February it killed senior ISIS leader Hamza al-Homsi during a helicopter raid in northeastern Syria in a mission that left four U.S. service members and a service dog injured. The Pentagon carried out that mission with the Syrian Democratic Forces.