When United States-led forces attacked Osama bin Laden's stronghold at Tora Bora, al-Turkistani was among the local defenders; after the battle's end, he fled to Pakistan, where he was arrested and jailed by the Inter-Services Intelligence until around 2011.

[1] After being released, al-Turkistani returned to Afghanistan and joined the Islamic Jihad Union (IJU), an al-Qaeda-affiliated group, in order to fight the Afghan government and ISAF.

[3] In late 2016, al-Turkistani took part in talks between the al-Nusra Front (by then renamed to "Jabhat Fateh al-Sham") and various other rebel groups about a merger into a major coalition.

Al-Turkistani was subsequently declared a martyr by Jihadi online outlets,[4][1] with Jabhat Fateh al-Sham condemning the attack as sign that the United States had "chosen Bashar al-Assad over the Syrian people.

[1] On the other side, al-Turkistani's death also received considerable attention in China, where many netizens celebrated his killing and even called it a "superb New Year's gift".