special forces of U.S killed the leader of Islamic State jihadist group (IS) in a raid in northwestern Syriathe president said Thursday Joe Biden.
A senior US government official said Abu Ibrahim al-Hashemi al-Quraishi he died in the operation. Rescuers said at least 13 people, including women and children, were also killed.
“Thanks to the skill and bravery of our armed forces, we have removed the leader of IS from the battlefield … All Americans have returned safely from the operation,” Biden said in a statement.
Quraishi succeeded Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who led the group as it seized control of swaths of Syria and Iraq, ruling millions of people at the height of his self-proclaimed caliphate.
Baghdadi was killed in October 2019 by US troops, also in an incursion into northern Syria, after fighters from the Islamic State They were defeated on the battlefield. The group now carries out insurgent attacks in Iraq and Syria.
The Pentagon press secretary John Kirby, earlier described Thursday’s raid as a successful counterterrorism mission, saying there were no US casualties.
Syrian aid workers said at least 13 people, including six children and four women, were killed in clashes and explosions after the raid began, targeting a house in the Atmeh area, near the Syrian border. Turkey.
The United States military procedures to prevent civilian casualties are currently under scrutiny after a mistaken drone strike on Afghanistan which the Pentagon initially considered a success.
Several jihadist groups linked to Al Qaeda operating in northwestern Syria, the last major stronghold of the rebels fighting the president Bashar al-Assad in the decade-long Syrian war. Leaders of the Islamic State group have also been hiding in the area.
Residents said the helicopters landed and loud gunshots and explosions were heard during the raid that began around midnight. US forces used loudspeakers to warn women and children to leave the area, they said.
