close
Friday March 29, 2024

Wanted ISIS chief Qurashi killed in US Syria raid

By AFP
February 04, 2022
Wanted ISIS chief Qurashi killed in US Syria raid

ATME, Syria: US special forces carried out a brazen nighttime airborne raid in northwestern Syria during which the head of the Islamic State group was "taken off the battlefield", US President Joe Biden said on Thursday.

The operation, in which Kurdish forces also took part, was conducted in the Idlib region where his better-known predecessor Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed in similar raid in 2019."Last night at my direction, US military forces in the 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-Qurashi -- the leader of ISIS," he said, using another acronym for IS.

A US official said Qurashi blew himself up during the raid. Qurashi, who was also known as Amir Mohammed Said Abd al-Rahman al-Mawla, replaced Baghdadi after his death in a US raid in October 2019, had a reputation for brutality. Initial reports that followed the operation near the town of Atme had suggested the target might have been a senior jihadist close to IS´ rival group Al-Qaeda. The Pentagon had acknowledged the operation earlier but without providing details, describing it only as "successful".

The two-storey building of raw cinder blocks bore the scars of an intense battle, with torn window frames, charred ceilings and a partly collapsed roof. In some of the rooms, blood was splattered high on the walls and stained the floor, littered with foam mattresses and shards from smashed doors.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said civilians were among at least 13 people killed in the operation, which saw elite US forces make a perilous helicopter landing near Atme. "Thirteen people at least were killed, among them four children and three women, during the operation," Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP. The Observatory later said a foreign woman blew herself up with an explosive belt inside the house. AFP correspondents were able to visit a home on the outskirts of Atme which appeared to be one of the main targets of the US special forces.

A witness told AFP he woke to the sound of helicopters. "Then we heard small explosions. Then we heard stronger explosions," Abu Ali, a displaced Syrian living in Atme said, adding that US forces told residents "not to worry". "We´re just coming to this house... to rid you of the terrorists," the man quoted the US forces as saying in their loudspeaker messages.

The American helicopters took off from a military base in the Kurdish-controlled city of Kobani, Abdel Rahman said. Elite, US-trained members of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces joined the operation, he added.

Farhad Shami, who heads the media office of the US-backed SDF, said the operation targeted "the most dangerous international terrorists." Kurdish forces had also taken part in the raid against Baghdadi in 2019.