Islamic State Leader Dies During US Raid in Syria

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President Joe Biden said Thursday that the leader of the Islamic State militant group died during a raid by U.S. Special Operations commandos in a risky predawn attack in northwest Syria. Rescue workers said women and children were among at least 13 people killed during the raid.

Biden said in a statement that the terrorist leader, identified by the Islamic State as Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, was killed. A senior administration official said al-Qurayshi died at the beginning of the operation when he exploded a bomb that killed him and members of his own family, including women and children.

“Thanks to the skill and bravery of our armed forces, we have taken off the battlefield Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi — the leader of ISIS,” Biden said in a statement. “All Americans have returned safely from the operation.”

The helicopter-borne assault carried out by about two dozen U.S. commandos, backed by helicopter gunships, armed Reaper drones and attack jets, resembled the raid in October 2019 in which Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the previous Islamic State leader, died when he detonated a suicide vest as U.S. forces raided a hideout not far from where Thursday’s operation took place.

The airborne raid came days after the end of the largest U.S. combat involvement with the Islamic State group since the end of the jihadis’ so-called caliphate three years ago. U.S. forces backed a Kurdish-led militia in northeastern Syria as it fought for more than a week to oust Islamic State fighters from a prison they had occupied in the city of Hasaka.

Little is known about al-Qurayshi, who succeeded al-Baghdadi, or the Islamic State’s top command structure. But analysts said the leader’s death was a significant blow to the terrorist group.

U.S. helicopters ferried the commandos into position after midnight, surrounding a house in Atmeh, a town close to the border with Turkey in rebel-held Idlib province, according to eyewitnesses, social media reports and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a conflict monitor based in Britain.

A long, tense standoff ensued, with loudspeakers blaring warnings in Arabic for everyone in the house to surrender, neighbors said. After about two hours, the house’s occupants had not emerged and a major battle erupted, with heavy machine gun fire and apparent missile strikes that damaged the house, collapsed some of its walls and blew out its windows.

During the operation, one of the helicopters suffered a mechanical problem, was forced to land and was later destroyed by American attack aircraft. After about three hours, the U.S. commandos and their remaining helicopters flew off, witnesses said.

Video from the scene on social media showed people pulling the bodies of at least nine men, women and children from the rubble of the badly damaged house.

Witnesses said that American strikes on the house caused the damage. But a senior military official said there was an explosion inside the house that was not caused by U.S. firepower, and was more likely caused by the target of the raid blowing himself up.

The Syria Civil Defense, also known as the White Helmets, pulled bodies and survivors from the rubble after the airstrikes and posted on Twitter that at least 13 people had been killed during the operation, including four women and six children. The group did not provide further details on the identities of those killed.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also reported 13 deaths, including three women and four children and others who had not yet been identified.

UNICEF said in a statement that at least six children were killed “due to heavy violence.”

(Author: Eric Schmitt and Ben Hubbard)/(c.2021 The New York Times Company)