Terror leader killed in special forces hit
The daring US helicopter raid deep in Syria that ended in the death of one of the world’s most wanted men gives Joe Biden the kind of dramatic military win that he desperately needed.
“A major terrorist threat to the world” was extinguished, Mr Biden said, unveiling details of the death of “horrible” Islamic State leader Abu Ibrahim al-hashimi al-qurashi.
Mr Biden’s foreign policy challenges are daunting – Russia and Ukraine, North Korean missile tests, Iran’s nuclear program and Chinese sabre-rattling over Taiwan – and Republicans have worked to generate a narrative that Mr Biden is weak, making the world more dangerous.
The raid in Syria’s Idlib region, where Qurashi blew himself up, and resultant publicity is his answer. Mr Biden said the military action was “a strong message to terrorists around the world: We will come after you and find you.”
US officials say they could have easily killed Qurashi – whose location they had narrowed down last year before pinpointing it – with a precision missile.
Mr Biden chose a riskier course, said a senior US official, to reduce the possibility of killing the civilians also living in the three-level home.
The Special Operations Forces assault was “incredibly complex”, the official said, given several nearby homes
and the presence of women and children in the building.
In the end, as elite US troops surrounded the house calling for all inside to come out, Qurashi blew himself up along with his wife and two children – an outcome the Americans had prepared for but hoped against.
Mr Biden was briefed on the situation this week and gave the operational goahead on Tuesday. The raid mostly went to plan.
As Mr Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and other officials monitored in real time in the Situation Room, helicopters flew in US commandos who surrounded the building and warned off neighbours.
The team called on everyone to exit the building, and a couple and their children living on the first level emerged and were taken to safety, a senior official said. Moments later, the top floor erupted with an explosion, tearing off half the structure but leaving the level below intact.
US forces began moving in, but a couple on the second floor barricaded themselves in and began firing on them.
“The ISIS lieutenant and his wife were killed,” the official said, without offering details, adding that four children emerged to be taken to safety.
After the raid open questions remained about how many people died. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said seven civilians were among at least 13 people killed, four of them children.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said at least three civilians died – Qurashi’s wife and their two children.
The US military official meanwhile said eight children and two adults were saved. But the official allowed it was not clear how many children were on the top floor when it exploded, and that a couple below may have had more children with them.
US forces took incoming fire from unknown local gunmen during the raid, the official said. The US troops fired back, killing at least two, with no Americans injured.