SANA said the Syrian army carried out a “qualitative security operation” which resulted in the takedown of Abu Salem al-Iraqi in Adwan town after he blew himself up after being surrounded.
The operation also resulted in the death of a member of the security forces and a civilian, SANA’s statement added.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) war monitor said Iraqi was killed on Tuesday.
Iraqi’s death marks the second ISIS leader killed in the war-torn country in under a month.
In July, the top ISIS leader in Syria Maher al-Agal was killed by a US Central Command drone strike in Afrin district, with another top jihadist associate also injured in the strike.
Daraa province, where the Syrian revolution in 2011 originated, has been under regime control since 2018, but some areas still remain under the influence of rebel groups.
ISIS seized control of vast swathes of Syrian land in 2014 but was declared territorially defeated in 2019 after forces of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) overran its last bastion in Baghouz.
While the group lacks any territorial presence on the ground, it still continues to pose serious security risks through bombings, hit-and-run attacks, and abductions.
