WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden said a “major terrorist threat” was eliminated during a U.S. raid in northwest Syria in which Islamic State leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi was killed.
“Thanks to the bravery of our troops this horrible terrorist leader is no more,” Biden said in remarks at the White House on Thursday after announcing earlier that he had ordered the U.S. attack. “Our forces carried out the operation with their signature preparation and precision.”
The leader of the militant group was killed after he detonated a bomb in the third-story apartment he and his family shared in the Atmeh village in northwestern Syria as U.S. forces closed in, according to senior U.S. officials who briefed reporters on the mission. There were no American casualties, but the U.S. said al-Qurayshi was responsible for the deaths of women and children when he blew himself up during the raid.
Al-Qurayshi took over as leader of the terrorist organization after Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed in a U.S. raid in 2019. Al-Qurayshi oversaw the group’s attacks on the Yazidi religious minority in Iraq.
Though the influence of Islamic State waned as Syrian and Iraqi forces — variously backed by the U.S. and its allies, as well as Iran and Russia — largely eliminated its territorial holdings in recent years, the group was never completely eradicated. In recent weeks, Islamic State fighters launched an assault to seize a prison in Syria — an operation U.S. officials said al-Qurayshi helped lead.
U.S. intelligence had been tracking al-Qurayshi for months, and determined definitively that he was directing Islamic State activities from the apartment building in December. The U.S. gathered intelligence about the site — even building a diorama for the president and senior officials to review in the Situation Room — and spent weeks evaluating and practicing different missions.
The president made the final decision to conduct the raid on Tuesday morning, during a meeting with Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The prospect of potentially saving children unaffiliated with the terrorist leader played a role in Biden’s decision to send in U.S. special forces rather than conducting an airstrike, officials said.
“Knowing that this terrorist had chosen to surround himself with families, including children, we made a choice to pursue a Special Forces raid — at a much greater risk to our own people — rather than targeting him with an airstrike,” Biden said.
That decision appeared to pay early dividends after U.S. troops were able to safely evacuate a family living on the first floor of the apartment building in the early minutes of the approximately two-hour operation.
But soon after the U.S. assault unfolded, al-Qurayshi detonated a bomb that killed him and members of his family on the third floor. Officials said they had anticipated that possibility because al-Baghdadi also killed himself with explosives during a U.S. raid, but determined the mission could still be worthwhile. Military engineers had predicted the blast was unlikely to destroy the entire building.
“In a final act of desperate cowardice, with no regard for the lives of his own family or others in the building, he chose to blow himself up — not just with a vest but to blow up that third floor — rather than face justice for the crimes he has committed, taking several members of his family with him,” Biden said.
An al-Qurayshi lieutenant and his wife survived the blast and engaged U.S. special forces in a firefight from the second floor of the building. They were ultimately killed, and some children were safely removed from the site, the officials said.
Defense Secretary Austin, facing criticism that the Pentagon has underestimated civilian deaths at the hands of the U.S. in conflict zones, said that while al-Qurayshi was to blame for the deaths of women and children at the site, “we will take a look at the possibility our actions may also have resulted in harm to innocent people.”
Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris monitored the operation live from the situation room. Toward the end of the mission, local al-Qaida-affiliated forces arrived at the site and began firing on U.S. helicopters. At least two of those Syrians were killed.
One helicopter carrying U.S. forces for the mission suffered a mechanical problem during the operation. It was moved to a nearby location and destroyed, the officials said.
U.S. officials say they believe the raid will lead to a significant disruption in Islamic State activities, noting that al-Qurayshi was one of the few remaining legacy leaders of the group.
“This operation is testament to America’s reach and capability to take out terrorist threats, no matter where they try to hide anywhere in the world,” Biden said.
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