Photo: MOHAMMED AL-RIFAI / AFP / Getty Images
The President Joe Biden confirmed that the leader of ISIS is dead, after he blew himself and his entire family up during a raid by US commandos on a house in northwestern Syria on Thursday.
Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi detonated a bomb that killed him and members of this family, reported the White House.
Thirteen died, including six children and four women, during the mission, in which participated 24 commandos Special Operations backed by attack planes, Reaper drones and helicopter gunships.
“At the beginning of the operation, the terrorist target exploded a bomb that killed him and members of his own family, including women and children,” said a senior administration official, as reported by the New York Times.
In his statement, Biden said that al-Qurayshi was “removed from the battlefield.” He added that he would address the operation in statements later on Thursday.
“Last night, under my direction, US military forces in northwestern Syria conducted successfully conducted a counterterrorism operation to protect the American people and our allies and make the world a safer place,” the president said in a statement Thursday morning.
The raid targeted a large house in Atmeh in the Idlib region of Syria, where the ISIS leader was hiding.
The two-story house was left with the top floor destroyed and blood splattered inside. Several residents saw body parts scattered near the site.
Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi, also known as Abdullah Qardash or Hajji Abdullah, became the leader of the ISIS terrorist organization, after former leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi also blew himself up in a similar raid by US forces in 2011 nearby. town of Barisha.
“Thanks to the skill and courage of our Armed Forces, we have removed Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi from the battlefield by -Qurayshi, the leader of ISIS. All of the Americans have returned safely from the operation. I will make a statement to the American people later this morning. God protect our troops,” Biden said in the statement.
The operation is believed to be the largest US-led incursion into the Idlib region since the assault on 2011 that killed al-Baghdadi.
It was carried out in a similar manner to the raid that resulted in the death of Osama Bin Laden in 2011.
The US commandos deployed by helicopter under cover of darkness, surrounded the house and ordered women and children to evacuate through loudspeakers, before engaging opposition fighters in combat.
Then the helicopters deployed their artillery after the ground assault, with several attacks reducing large sections of the house to rubble, although some of the damage is believed to have been due to the target’s suicide blast.
“The mission was a success. There were no American casualties,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said in a statement.
But local residents and activists said several civilians were killed in the battle, and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and first responders from the Syrian Civil Defense reported 13 deaths, including multiple women and children.
The anti-jihadist coalition is led by the United States, but its operations include forces from several countries, including the United Kingdom, France, Canada and Turkey.
Several residents, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals following the raid, said the mission involved helicopters, explosions and exchanges of intense fire between ground troops.
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