IS LEADER BLOWS SELF UP DURING SYRIA RAID, US SAYS
AMMAN/WASHINGTON— The leader of Islamic State died when he blew himself and family members up during a US military raid in Syria, President Joe Biden said on Thursday, dealing a blow to the jihadist group’s efforts to reorganize as a guerrilla force after losing large swathes of territory.
Abu Ibrahim al-Hashemi al-Quraishi, had led IS since the death in 2019 of its founder Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who was also killed when he detonated explosives during a raid by US commandos.
As US forces closed in on Quraishi in northwestern Syria overnight, he triggered a blast that also killed members of his family, including children, according to Biden and US officials.
Biden, who monitored the raid from the White House’s Situation Room, called Quraishi’s suicide a “final act of desperate cowardice.”
“As our troops approached to capture the terrorist, in a final act of desperate cowardice, with no regard to the lives of his own family or others in the building, he chose to blow himself up,” Biden said.
Blown out
The blast was so big it hurled bodies out of the three-story building where Quraishi was and into surrounding streets in the town of Atmeh, US officials said, blaming IS for all civilian casualties.
“Thanks to the bravery of our troops, this horrible terrorist leader is no more,” Biden said in remarks at the White House.
A senior White House official said the blast was believed to have killed Quraishi, his two wives and a child on the third floor, and likely a child who was on the second floor with Quraishi’s lieutenant and his wife, who were killed after firing on US forces. Two additional fighters were killed after firing on US helicopters, the official said.
Quraishi had been using the house and an unwitting family living on the first floor as a “protective shield,” a factor that complicated planning for the raid, the official added.
Discrepancy
The official was unable to explain the discrepancy between those numbers and those provided by Syrian rescue workers, who said at least 13 people were killed, including four women and six children.
“It’s very clear from reviewing the operation in real time that the massive explosion on the third floor is what really caused the casualties,” the official said.
Quraishi’s death is another setback for IS nearly three years after its self-declared caliphate was dismantled by US and Iraqi forces.
Since then, Islamic State, also known as IS, has waged insurgent attacks in Iraq and Syria. The most recent was last month when its gunmen stormed a prison in northeastern Syria housing IS suspects.
Quraishi, a 45-year-old Iraqi, had remained largely in the shadows since succeeding Baghdadi who led the group when it launched a lightning expansion in 2014 that shocked the world. He was injured and lost a leg in a 2015 US air strike, the US official said. IS took control of large areas of Syria and Iraq, imposing strict Islamic rule over millions and inspiring attacks in the West.
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 branches from Africa to Afghanistan.
“Last night’s operation took a major terrorist leader off the battlefield and has sent a strong message to terrorist around the world: We will come after you and find you,” Biden said.
Civilians evacuated
US officials have been in touch with all partners in the counter-IS coalition since the operation, and all were resolved to continue fighting IS and the threat the group posed to their countries, the White House official said.
The killing of Quraishi, also known as Haji Abdullah, helps restore some of the Biden administration’s foreign policy credentials after it was widely criticized for last year’s chaotic withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan.
Residents in Atmeh, near the Syrian-Turkish border, 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.
The Pentagon said 10 people were evacuated, including children. Gen. Frank McKenzie, head of US Central Command, told the Washington-based Middle East Institute that all of them were “mobile and safe” and left at the scene when US forces departed.
US military procedures to guard against civilian casualties are under scrutiny following a high-profile mistaken drone strike in Afghanistan that the Pentagon initially hailed a success.
Aftermath video
A video taken by a resident and seen by Reuters showed the bodies at the scene and in an ambulance.
Reuters could not independently verify the images.
A Syrian man who witnessed the raid said he left his house after midnight and saw aircraft in the sky.
“Ten minutes later we heard screams. ‘Surrender, the house is surrounded,’” he said. “There was shelling from airplanes and machine guns.”
Another witness said he saw several bodies at the scene. “There was blood everywhere,” he told Reuters. He said one US helicopter appeared to suffer a mechanical failure and was blown up by the US forces.
Local leaders, security officials and residents in northern Iraq say IS has been reemerging as a deadly threat, aided by a lack of central control in many areas.
“Quraishi’s killing is a huge deal and a huge blow to IS because IS never heard from this new leader,” Syria analyst Hassan Hassan said.