WASHINGTON – Islamic State leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi was killed in an overnight US military raid in Syria, President Joe Biden announced Thursday.
Al-Qurayshi detonated a bomb that killed him and several others, including his wife and children, when US special operations forces closed in with the intention of capturing him, Biden said.
First responders reported that 13 people were killed, including six children and four women. Senior administration officials who spoke on condition of anonymity said those numbers do not match their assessment of casualties.
“Thanks to the bravery of our troops, this horrible terrorist leader is no more,” Biden said at the White House.
US forces landed in helicopters and stormed a house in a rebel-held corner of northwestern Syria, clashing for two hours with armed men, witnesses said. The commandos were aided by helicopter gunships, armed Reaper drones, and attack aircraft.
Al-Qurayshi was killed on the third floor of a house where he lived. One of his lieutenants barricaded himself and his family on the second floor during the raid. He and his wife fired on US troops and were killed in the battle, authorities said. Several children on the second floor got out safely after the shots were fired.
The operation “took a major terrorist leader off the battlefield and sent a strong message to terrorists around the world: We will come after you and we will find you,” Biden said.
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Raid planned months ago
The raid took place overnight in northwestern Syria, near the Turkish border, in the same region where former Islamic State group leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed in 2019. Al-Qurayshi took over as head of the militant group days later. al-Baghdadi blew himself up during a US raid in the same area.
Biden described al-Qurayshi’s decision to set off the bomb as US forces closed in as “a final act of desperate cowardice, with no regard for the lives of his own family or others.”
“He chose to blow himself up … rather than face justice for the crimes he has committed, taking several members of his family with him, just as his predecessor did,” Biden said.
Biden said all US forces involved in the operation have returned. There were no US casualties, authorities said.
The raid had been planned and rehearsed for months, senior administration officials said. Biden was briefed on the operation more than a month ago after officials confirmed that al-Qurayshi lived on the third floor of the house.
Biden gave final approval for the raid Tuesday morning during an Oval Office meeting with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and top national security advisers monitored a live feed of the operation from the White House Situation Room.
Other civilians living in the building were apparently unaware of al-Qurayshi’s identity, senior administration officials said.
Before the raid, US forces called others in the house and asked them to leave, the officials said. A woman, a man, and several children on the first floor safely left the building.
Break-in details
US troops were on the ground for about two hours, Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said.
Biden said he asked the Defense Department to take every precaution to avoid civilian casualties, which is why the decision was made to launch a more risky special operations forces raid rather than target al-Qurayshi with an airstrike. .
“These efforts included a deliberate decision by the president to execute a raid on the site rather than an airstrike despite the additional risks that decision imposed on our forces,” Kirby said.
After US special operations forces asked al-Qurayshi to surrender, a large explosion tore a hole through the building’s third floor, ejecting al-Qurayshi’s body and others to the ground. The blast was probably too big to come from a suicide vest, Marine Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, commander of US Central Command, told the Middle East Institute on Thursday afternoon.
US troops entered the building after the blast and engaged in a firefight with an al-Qurayshi deputy on the second floor, Kirby said. The man and his wife shot at the troops and were killed. A child was also killed there.
Ten people were uninjured and were not detained after the operation, Kirby said.
A helicopter with what Kirby described as transmission chain problems was moved to another site. It was destroyed there after it was determined that it could not be safely flown.
Near the end of the raid, another helicopter was attacked by local forces, authorities said. US troops returned fire, killing at least two of the attackers.
Biden said al-Qurayshi was responsible for an assault late last month to seize a prison in northeastern Syria that held at least 3,000 detainees from the Islamic State and the 2014 genocide against the Yazidi people in Iraq.
“The fight against ISIS continues. Their leader may be gone, but his twisted ideology and intent to kill, maim and terrorize still threaten our national security and the lives of countless innocents,” Austin said in a statement.
McKenzie described the operation as a long-range helicopter assault aimed at capturing al-Qurayshi. His body was identified by fingerprints and DNA analysis, he said.
Matthew Brown and Michael Collins cover the White House. Follow Brown on Twitter @mrbrownsir and Collins @mcollinsNEWS.
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