File photo of US forces in northeast Syria
(Picture: AFP via Getty Images)A senior ISIS leader has been killed in a helicopter raid in northeastern Syria, US officials have confirmed.
Hamza al-Homsi died on Thursday night during a US and Syrian Democratic Forces helicopter raid, the US Central Command said.
Four US service members and one working dog were wounded in the raid. They are receiving treatment in a US medical facility in Iraq and are in a stable condition.
Their injuries resulted from Hamza Al-Homsi triggering an explosion on the target near Deir ez-zor in Syria, the Central Command said.
The ISIS leader oversaw the group’s deadly terrorist network in eastern Syria before he was killed, but further details have not been disclosed.
“No other ISIS fighters were killed or captured on this target, however, a separate ISIS raid that same night resulted in the death of an ISIS assassination cell leader,” US officials said.
No civilians and no Syrian Democratic Forces partner forces were injured in the operation, the Central Command claimed.
Officials did not disclose exactly where Thursday’s raid took place.
The raid comes a week after a separate raid by the US and SDF killed Ibrahim Al Qahtani, another ISIS official who planned to help ISIS prisoners escape from detention centers.
In January, the US killed another top official and 10 of his lieutenants in a raid in Somalia.
In 2017 the head of ISIS in Afghanistan, Abdul Hasib, was killed during a raid by US and Afghan special forces in Nangarhar.
