ISIS LEADER KILLED, U.S. TROOPS WOUNDED IN RAID

The U.S. military said Friday a helicopter raid led by its forces in northeast Syria left a senior leader with the Islamic State group dead and four American service members wounded.

It was the first time in more than a year that an American service member was injured during a raid against the Islamic State.

U.S. Central Command, which oversees operations in the region, said in the short statement that its operation was conducted Thursday night in partnership with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, which is allied with the U.S.

It added that “an explosion on target resulted in four U.S. service members and one working dog wounded.” It did not say in which part of northeast Syria the raid was conducted.

It identified the killed Islamic State commander as Hamza al-Homsi.

The wounded Americans are receiving treatment at a medical facility in neighboring Iraq, the statement said.

U.S. military officials previously have said that they carried out 108 joint operations last year against alleged Islamic State fighters in Syria, and 191 more in Iraq. Nearly 700 suspected members of the Islamic State were killed in those operations, Central Command said, underscoring that while the situation in Iraq and Syria has stabilized from the depths of the Islamic State’s rampage and seizure of territory in the region, operations are ongoing and still dangerous.

Col. Joseph Buccino, a U.S. military spokesman, said in January that no U.S. troops were killed or wounded during operations against the Islamic State in 2022. American military personnel have been wounded in other incidents, however, with Iranian-backed militias firing rockets at U.S. military positions in the region.

In August, three U.S. troops suffered minor injuries when rockets were launched at them in northeastern Syria, Central Command said. U.S. forces dispatched attack helicopters in response, destroying three vehicles and equipment used to launch rockets, U.S. military officials said. At least two or three suspected militants were reported killed in that incident.

Separately on Friday, ISIS gunmen in central Syria shot dead at least 36 people south of the town of Sukhna, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor. Pro-government radio station Sham FM reported the militants ambushed people who were foraging for wild truffles in the desert. State television put the death toll at 53.