Top Daesh leader killed during US raid in Syria, says Biden

Special forces involved in the operation return safely.

By Chidanand Rajghatta, Washington

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Published: Thu 3 Feb 2022, 5:13 PM

Last updated: Thu 3 Feb 2022, 9:06 PM

In a demonstration that the Ukraine crisis will not deter Washington from addressing its security concerns in the Middle East, US Special Forces conducted a counter-terrorism operation in northwestern Syria on Wednesday, killing Abu Ibrahim Al Hashimi Al Qurayshi, who had succeeded Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi as the Daesh leader.

US officials said there were no American casualties during the raid, but 13 people, including women and children, are reported to have died in the clash, many of them casualties from a suicide vest detonated by Al Qurayshi. An American helicopter was also destroyed by US commandos after it reportedly malfunctioned.

“Last night at my direction, US military forces in northwest Syria successfully undertook a counterterrorism operation to protect the American people and our Allies, and make the world a safer place. Thanks to the skill and bravery of our Armed Forces, we have taken off the battlefield Abu Ibrahim Al Hashimi Al Qurayshi...All Americans have returned safely from the operation,” President Joe Biden said in a statement on Thursday morning.

In a later address to the nation, Biden defended the US forces and blamed Al Qurayshi for the casualties. “Knowing that this terrorist had chosen to surround himself with families, including children, we made a choice to pursue a special forces raid at a much greater risk to our own people rather than targeting him with an airstrike,” Biden clarified.

The president said the commando operation was a warning to terrorist groups across the world: “We will come after you and find you.”

“This operation is testament to America’s reach and capability to take out terrorist threats no matter where they try to hid anywhere in the world,” he said.

A photograph released by the White House showed Biden, Vice-President Kamala Harris and members of the president’s national security team watching the counterterrorism operation in what appeared to be the White House Situation Room — the picture reminiscent of President Barack Obama and his team watching the raid on the Abbotabad compound in Pakistan that killed Osama bin Laden. Pictures from the ground in Syria also showed a destroyed two-storeyed structure similar to the Abbotabad compound.

Al Qurayshi is believed to have succeeded Baghdadi, who was killed in a US Delta Force raid in 2019 during the Trump presidency. Reports from Syria said Al Qurayshi blew himself up with a suicide vest during the raid, taking with him members of his own family, including women and children. A Syrian civil defence group working in the area said there were six children and four women among the 13 bodies recovered so far.

The US raid, coming amid a growing crisis with Russia over Ukraine, indicated Washington is not taking its eyes of the Middle East. Politically, the strike was seen as offsetting the American debacle in Afghanistan, for which President Biden was pilloried, although the fiasco was more than a decade in the making.

Earlier this week, the Pentagon announced that it is deploying the missile destroyer USS Cole to support its ally UAE in its defence against Houthi militants. The USS Cole was attacked in Aden in October 2000 by al Qaeda terrorists, resulting in the death of 17 US Navy personnel.

reporters@khaleejtimes.com