US Special Forces “successfully” conducted a “counterterrorism mission” in northwest Syria on Wednesday night, killing Islamic State leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, President Joe Biden announced. this Thursday morning (3).
It was the biggest US attack on the country since the 2019 raid that killed then-Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
Sources at the scene reported several deaths. At least 13 people were killed in clashes during and after the attack – including six children and four women – according to the civil defense NGO operating in the country, the “White Helmets”.
There were no US casualties, according to the Pentagon.
Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby said in a statement late Wednesday that the mission was led by US Central Command (Centcom), which controls military operations and activities in the Middle East.
“More information will be provided as it becomes available,” the statement said.
The Pentagon’s three-sentence statement did not reveal a target for the special operations mission or whether there were any indications of civilian casualties.
But witnesses and rescuers told the CNN that bombings and explosions preceded the arrival of US forces shortly after midnight and hit a house in the Syrian-Turkish border area of Atmeh, in the rebel enclave of Idlib.
A witness in Atmeh, who asked not to be named for security reasons, said machine-gun fire was fired from at least three helicopters overhead, followed by an explosion a few minutes later.
The area has a strong presence of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) forces, which were previously affiliated with Al Qaeda.
“I heard from a distance a person who speaks Arabic with an Iraqi accent asking families to evacuate the area because then they would be safe,” said the witness. “I saw from a distance that there were machine guns shooting from the ground towards the helicopters.”
The witness said that two of the three helicopters he saw landed within an hour of the clashes. “Around 3:20 am, the helicopters took off and I saw a distant light that looked like a fire,” the witness said.
The witness also said he heard what sounded like drone attacks and said HTS forces were preventing civilians from entering the area.
THE CNN contacted Central Command.
Source: CNN Brasil
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