The United States has welcomed the elimination of a “major terrorist threat” to the world following the death of Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Quraishi, the leader of the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group, who was killed during a special forces operation in Syria.
“In a desperate last act of cowardice and indifferent to the life of his own family or other people inside the building, he chose to blow himself up (…) taking with him several members of his family, as his predecessor had done.” said President Biden, who was watching the operation in real time from the “Situation Room” of the White House.
In October 2019, former ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed in a U.S. airstrike in Idlib.
The attack on his successor, much less known to the general public, lasted two hours last night, Wednesday to Thursday, US officials said.
The “all victims”, whose number remains unclear, are the result of jihadist actions, whether it was the explosion caused by Quraisi or the clash started by one of his deputies inside the building, the Americans assured.
President Biden said he preferred to launch a commando operation, which is “much more dangerous” for US troops, rather than an air strike, ignoring civilians.
No American soldiers were injured or killed in the operation. The United States, however, had, according to White House sources, a technical problem with a helicopter, which they destroyed at a location far from where the raid took place.
Joe Biden, who according to a senior White House official gave the green light for the operation on Tuesday, said the United States remained committed to the fight against terrorism, warning jihadist leaders: “We are watching you and we will find you.”
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human RightsUS troops landed by helicopter near IDP camps in Atmeh, an area of Idlib province.
Thirteen people were killed, including four women and three children, the NGO said without elaborating on the victims.
Qurayshi, an Iraqi national, had succeeded the leadership of the extremist organization responsible for many atrocities, abuses and attacks in the Middle East and several Western countries in late October 2019, but months later was officially identified by Iraqi and US intelligence. .
Biden describes him as a “horrific terrorist”, “responsible” for the recent attack on a Syrian prison and the “driving force” behind the genocide and mass rapes against the Yazidi Turkic-speaking minority.
Nicknamed the “Teacher” or the “Destroyer”, Amir Mohammed Saeed Abdel Rahman al-Maula was a jihadist with many pseudonyms, whom the Islamic State described as the “emir” of Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Quraishi after jihadist organization.
According to AFP correspondents, in ‘Atme, the operation targeted a two-storey building in a location surrounded by trees. Part of the building was destroyed and the floor of the rooms was covered with blood.
In a recorded message to U.S. forces, an Arabic-speaking man asked women and children to move away from homes in the target area.
Abu Ahmad, the owner of the house targeted by the operation, told AFP that Quraisi had been “living there for 11 months. I had not seen anything suspicious. He was coming to see me just to pay the rent. He was staying there with his three.” “his children and his wife. His sister, a widow, and her daughter lived upstairs.”
US helicopters took off from a base in the northern Kurdish city of Kombani, and US-trained Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) members took part in the operation, according to the Observatory.
According to experts, the overcrowded IDP camps in the Atme area serve as a base for the jihadist leaders hiding there.
Their groups have already been targeted by airstrikes by the Syrian regime, Russia, but also by the international coalition against the jihadists led by the US and US special forces.
Helicopter operations, on the other hand, are rare.
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