ISIS leader killed
SYRIA - The suspected leader of ISIS has been killed in an operation carried out by Turkish forces in northern Syria, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Sunday.
‘‘The suspected leader of Daesh, codename Abu Hussein al-Qurashi, has been neutralised in an operation carried out yesterday (Saturday) by the MIT in Syria,’’ he announced on television. The news comes as Erdogan looks to recover support ahead of the presidential elections on May 14. He has been in the role since 2014 but faces waning support in key areas.
Local outlets said Turkish intelligence agents and local military police, backed by Turkey, had on Saturday sealed off a zone in Jindires, in the northwest region of Afrine, about four miles from the Turkish border.
Al-Qurashi’s predecessor, Abu alHasan al-Hashmi al-Qurayshi, was killed last November.
Residents said an operation had targeted an abandoned farm that was being used as an Islamic school.
Turkey’s national intelligence organisation, MIT, launched the operation at around 1am on Saturday and reportedly breached the house, clashing with ISIS fighters.
LONDON - There’s a lucky horseshoe nailed over the front door of Angela Kelly’s cosy grace-and-favour cottage in Windsor Home Park.
And for the many years it has been in place, fortune has certainly smiled on the Liverpool docker’s daughter who, for two decades, was Queen Elizabeth’s dresser and confidante.
The former lorry driver in the Women’s Royal Army Corps was such an indispensable part of the late Queen’s life that during her last months when she was increasingly frail, she allowed Angela to move into a room on the same floor of her private apartments in the Augusta Tower at Windsor Castle.
This was a uniquely practical arrangement, as Angela later told friends she was effectively the Queen’s carer. But some eight months on from the Queen’s death, Ms Kelly, who was feared as much as she was admired within the Royal Household, learned that there is little room for sentiment when one reign ends and another begins.