Witnesses say building ‘partially destroyed’ When Biden was briefed by operational commanders in December, he ordered the Pentagon to take precautions to minimize civilian deaths – a difficult proposition for a target who appeared to intentionally surround himself with children and families as protection, the officials said. Families with no connection to ISIS lived on the first floor, apparently without knowledge of the terrorist two stories above them. He never left it, living on the third floor with his family and running the terror operation through a network of couriers. Senior administration officials said the US learned months ago that Qurayshi was living in the compound. Those issues had nothing to do with “any kind of hostile action.” The operation took about two hours to complete from start to finish, Kirby said.ĭuring the raid, a US helicopter had “mechanical issues” and was “properly disposed of at some distance from the site,” one official said. The rest of the group approaching US forces fled. A senior defense official said helicopters targeted the two men, though the official said there may have been an exchange of fire on the ground as well. The group was deemed hostile by US troops, “they were engaged,” and two of them were killed, he added. Toward the end of the operation, two more people were killed when a “group of individuals” approached the compound, Kirby said. When US forces entered the building, the officials said, he barricaded himself with his wife on the second floor and was killed after engaging them.Īnother child was also killed on the second floor, though Kirby would not go into detail about how they were killed. US forces entered the compound because a top ISIS lieutenant lived on the floor beneath Qurayshi. The blast occurred before any US forces entered the building, the officials said. Moments later, the suicide detonation went off, killing Qurayshi, his wife and his children, blowing their bodies outside the building and onto the surrounding land. Aaref Watad/AFP/Getty ImagesĪfter the US forces landed, they announced their presence loudly, asking those inside the building to leave and for others in the surrounding residential area to stay away. Syrians gather at the scene following the overnight raid by US Special Forces. The five combatants include Qurayshi, his deputy, his deputy’s wife and two others outside the compound who exchanged fire with US troops toward the end of the operation. ![]() It remains unclear why there is such a wide discrepancy between the numbers provided by the Pentagon and the White Helmets. The Syrian civil defense group the White Helmets, however, said 13 people were killed, including six children and four women. US special forces were able to evacuate 10 people, including eight children, from the first and second floors of the building, Kirby said. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Thursday that the death of Qurayshi “delivers a catastrophic blow to ISIS” and underscores the US commitment to eradicating terrorist threats.įour civilians and five combatants were killed during the raid, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said during a briefing Thursday. “While we are still assessing the results of this operation, this appears to be the same cowardly terrorist tactic we saw in the 2019 operation that eliminated al-Baghdadi,” the official said. But one senior administration official said that “at the beginning of the operation, the terrorist target exploded a bomb that killed him and members of his own family, including women and children.” The Pentagon will conduct a more thorough after-action review of the raid. Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said in a statement late Wednesday night that the mission was conducted by US Central Command, which controls military operations and activities in the Middle East. “Knowing that terrorist had chosen to surround himself with families, including children, we made a choice to pursue a Special Forces raid at a much a greater risk to our own people rather than targeting him with an airstrike.” “Thanks to the bravery of our troops, this horrible terrorist leader is no more,” Biden said from the Roosevelt Room. Tense moments in Situation Room as Biden oversaw raid on ISIS leader that was months in the makingīiden spoke from the White House Thursday morning to announce that the operation had taken “a major terrorist leader off the battlefield,” saying the US had chosen to use special forces the operation in order to try to minimize civilian casualties. ![]() 3, 2022, in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington. special forces that killed top Islamic State leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi in northwestern Syria, Thursday, Feb. President Joe Biden speaks about a counterterrorism raid carried out by U.S.
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