A US operation in northern Syria killed senior ISIS leader Hamza al-Homsi, according to military officials.
The helicopter raid, in conjunction with Syrian Democratic Forces, also injured four US servicemembers and a working dog in an “explosion on target,” according to a statement from CENTCOM.
They are being treated for their injuries in a facility in Iraq, the military said.
Three of the service members are in stable condition, as is the working dog, a senior military official familiar with the operation told CNN.
Officials did not disclose precisely where Thursday’s raid took place.
US and allied operations have continued to target senior IS leadership after the demise in 2019 of the group’s self-declared caliphate spanning parts of Iraq and Syria.
ISIS leader Maher al-Agal, among the group’s top five officials, was killed in a US drone strike in July.
Later that year, in October, IS leader Abu al-Hassan al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi was killed in a battle in Syria.
In February of 2021, another top leader, Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, was killed in a US raid in northwestern Syria, while a US operation in October of 2019 killed IS founder Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
Last year, the Islamic State appointed Abu al-Hussein al-Husseini al-Quraishi as its new leader, after the group’s previous leader blew himself up when surrounded by opposing forces.
In January, Sayfullo Saipov who used a truck to kill eight people in an ISIS-inspired 2017 terrorist attack on a New York city bike path, was convicted of murder.
