US special forces have “taken off the battlefield” the leader of the Islamic State (IS) group in a raid in northwest Syria, President Joe Biden said on Thursday, adding that the operation had "removed a major terrorist threat".
"Last night's 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 find you," Biden said in remarks from the White House, hours after the raid in which IS group leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Quraishi blew himself up.
"Thanks to the bravery of our troops, this horrible terrorist leader is no more," Biden added.
As US forces approached Quraishi in northwest Syria overnight, he blew himself up, also killing members of his own family, including women and children, according to Biden and US officials.
The blast was so big it blew bodies out of the three-storey building where Quraishi was and into surrounding streets in the town of Atmeh, US officials said, blaming the IS group for civilian casualties.
Neither Biden nor US officials briefing reporters provided a death toll, but Syrian rescue workers said at least 13 people were killed, including four women and six children.
'A big blow for the IS group, in the short term'
Quraishi, also known as Amir Mohammed Said Abd al-Rahman al-Mawla, succeeded Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who led the IS group when it took over swathes of Syria and Iraq, ruling over millions of people at the height of its self-declared caliphate.
Baghdadi was killed in Oct. 2019 by US troops – also in a raid in north Syria –after IS group fighters were defeated on the battlefield. The group is now waging insurgent attacks in Iraq and Syria.
Biden and US officials described Quraishi as the "driving force" behind the 2014 genocide of minority Yazidis in northern Iraq, and said he oversaw a network of IS group branches from Africa to Afghanistan.
His death "is a big blow for the IS group, in the short term", said FRANCE 24’s expert on jihadi terrorism Wassim Nasr, though cautioning that the slain jihadist "did not have the stature and aura of Baghdadi, who ruled the group from 2010 to 2019 and exported Islamic State to other parts of the world".
"Leaders are replaceable," Nasr added. "There's no personification of leadership in jihadi groups, for both religious and practical reasons, since they know they can be killed at any time."
Civilian casualties
Syrian rescue workers said at least 13 people including six children and four women were killed by clashes and explosions that erupted after the raid began, targeting a house in the Atmeh area near the Turkish border.
Residents said helicopters landed and heavy gunfire and explosions were heard during the raid that began around midnight. US forces used loudspeakers to warn women and children to leave the area, they said.
A video taken by a resident and seen by Reuters showed the bodies of two apparently lifeless children and a man in the rubble of a building at the location.
Other footage showed rescue workers loading what appeared to be a small body wrapped in a white plastic sheet into an ambulance. Other body bags were in the back of the vehicle.
US military procedures to guard against civilian casualties are currently under scrutiny following a high-profile mistaken drone strike in Afghanistan that the Pentagon initially hailed a success.
A number of jihadist groups with links to al-Qaeda operate in northwestern Syria, the last major bastion of rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad in the decade-long Syrian war. Leaders of the IS group have also hidden out in the area.
(FRANCE 24 with REUTERS)
