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“As our troops approached to capture the terrorist, in a final act of desperate cowardice and with no regard to the lives of his own family or others in the building, he chose to … blow up that third floor rather than face justice for the crimes he committed,” Biden said.
Rescue workers had earlier said that women and children were among at least 13 people killed in the pre-dawn raid, but senior US officials did not confirm the number of non-US casualties involved. There were no US casualties, they said, however one of the helicopters used in the raid suffered a mechanical problem and had to be destroyed.
According to national security officials, the force of al-Qurayshi’s bomb blast was so strong that body parts were scattered outside the premises, which is located in the village of Atmeh, in Syria’s rebel-held Idlib province near the border with Turkey.
Blood covers the floor of a destroyed house after an operation by the US military in the Syrian village of Atmeh in Idlib province on Thursday. Local residents and activists said civilians were among those killed.Credit:AP
Despite the risks involved, the operation represents a military success for the US following setbacks elsewhere, including last year’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan. Biden gave the mission the go-ahead on Tuesday – the same day the US announced it would deploy 3000 attentional troops to Eastern Europe in the face of Russian aggression towards Ukraine.
The clandestine operation came as the Islamic State group was appearing to attempt a comeback after its effort to establish a caliphate failed in 2019, following several years of fighting in Syria and Iraq.
The compound before a raid where Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, leader of the Islamic State Group, died in Syria’s northwestern Idlib province. Credit:AP
A US-backed Kurdish-led force said on Monday that the Gweiran prison, also known as al-Sinaa prison, is now fully under its control following the incident referenced by Biden on Thursday.
The Syrian Democratic Forces said more than 120 of their fighters and prison workers died in an effort to thwart an Islamic State plot there. The prison houses at least 3000 Islamic State detainees.
The attempted prison break was the biggest military operation by the extremist group since Islamic State was defeated and members scattered to havens in 2019. The US-led coalition carried out air strikes and deployed American personnel in Bradley Fighting Vehicles to the prison area to help the Kurdish forces.
People check damage to a house in Atmeh on Thursday. The Pentagon said the military operation was a successful, large-scale counterterrorism raid. Credit:AP
The US-led coalition has targeted high-profile militants on several occasions in recent years, aiming to disrupt what US officials say is a secretive cell known as the Khorasan group that is planning external attacks.
A US air strike killed al-Qaeda’s second in command, former bin Laden aide Abu al-Kheir al-Masri, in Syria earlier this year.
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