US Special Forces killed ISIS leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi during a counterterrorism mission in northwest Syria on Wednesday evening, US President Joe Biden announced on February 3.
It is the largest US-led raid in Syria since the operation that killed ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in 2019, CNN reports.
Multiple fatalities have been reported on the ground. According to the Syrian civil defense group, at least 13 people were killed in clashes during and after the raid — including six children and four women. The Pentagon reports no US casualties.
“Last night at my direction, US special forces in northwest Syria successfully undertook a counterterrorism operation to protect the American people and our Allies, and make the world a safer place,” Biden said in a statement. “Thanks to the skill and bravery of our Armed Forces, we have taken off the battlefield Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi – the leader of ISIS. All Americans have returned safely from the operation.”
According to Pentagon press secretary John Kirby, the mission was undertaken by the US Central Command, which has control of military operations and activities in the Middle East.
A senior administrative official said that the ISIS leader was killed by a bomb at the beginning of the operation, killing himself and members of his own family.
A heliborne assault carried out by some two dozen US commandos, accompanied by helicopter gunships, Reaper drones, and attack jets, resembled the raid in October 2019 in which Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the former leader of the Islamic State, committed suicide by detonating a suicide vest as US forces raided a hideout not far from Thursday’s operation.
The US-led airborne raid come just a few days after the end of the most extensive US combat effort with the Islamic State since the end of the so-called caliphate three years ago.
There has been a resurgence of ISIS in parts of Syria and Iraq. Earlier this month, over 100 ISIS members attacked a jail in northeastern Syria to free jailed members of the extremist group. The clashes that followed the failed jailbreak resulted in the deaths of 200 prisoners and 30 security forces.
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