Washington correspondent
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After taking over the leadership of the Islamic State, Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, apodado Hajji Abdullah, hid in a residential building in the small town of Atmeh, in the Syrian province of Idlib. He was sheltered on the third floor of a building where civilians lived, with many children, who had nothing to do with the terrorist group.
Upon being informed of that location, and of the presence of civilians in the place where he lived, Joe Biden Authorized a Special Forces Mission, Not a Drone Missile Strike or drones.
The White House now assures that the dead terrorist, in command of that group commonly known as Daesh or ISIS since the death of Abu Baker al-Baghdadi in 2019, oversaw that group’s operations around the world from Africa to Afghanistan.
President Biden, Vice President Harris and members of the President’s national security team observe the counterterrorism operation responsible for removing from the battlefield Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi — the leader of ISIS. pic.twitter.com/uhK75WeUme
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) February 3, 2022
Precisely on August 26, during the evacuation of the Kabul airport, the Afghan affiliate of Daesh attacked the American soldiers, killing 13 of them and more than 180 civilians. President Biden said Daesh would pay for the attack.
Since a month ago
The president was first briefed on this possible operation a month ago in the Oval Office, and finally gave the authorization this February 2, 2022, overnight in Washington, early morning in Syria.
President Biden and the vicepresidenta Kamala Harris they followed the operation in real time from the crisis room in the basement of the White House, there constantly informed by the Defense Minister Lloyd Austin and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mark Milley.
According to a count made this Thursday morning by US officials by telephone, the operation, in the early hours of Wednesday to Thursday, lasted two hours, which were planned, without setbacks.
The soldiers announced their arrival in the area so that the civilians could flee. The family on the first floor, a man, a woman and several children were evacuated by the soldiers. Those same sources said that these civilians were used by ISIS as “human shields.”
Suicide and death of his family
Upon learning of the arrival of the American soldiers, Hajji Abdullah detonated an explosive with which committed suicide and killed his wife and children on the third floor of the building. According to those sources mentioned above, the explosion was so strong that the remains of the deceased ended up in the street, three floors below.
The US military anticipated that Hajji Abdullah would use explosives, and went so far as to test the structure of the building beforehand to ensure that such a detonation would not bring the building down, killing everyone inside, including soldiers. They concluded that it would hold, and reported this to Biden before final clearance.
As they were leaving, the American soldiers exchanged fire with a second-floor resident, a lieutenant of Hajji Abdullah, and his wife. They both passed away. Their children were also evacuated by US soldiers. As reported later, there were eight minors rescued.
US sources say that the only civilian casualties in that operation were caused by terrorists holed up in their homes. The special forces killed the Daesh lieutenant and his wife and two members of an Islamist militia operating in Idlib, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham.
As the soldiers retreated, one of the helicopters they used broke down, although the Pentagon says it was a technical problem, not damage from enemy fire. The soldiers destroyed the helicopter, with no injuries or casualties. Something similar happened in May 2011 during the operation to kill Osama bin Laden in Pakistan.
According to the account of the aforementioned officials, Biden said at the end of the operation “God bless our soldiers”, and retired to the residence in the White House. He was informed of the soldiers’ arrival at his base during the night.
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George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism