US special forces kill 13 in Syria raid
Residents said helicopters landed and heavy gunfire and explosions were heard during the raid that began around midnight
AMMAN: US special forces successfully carried out a counterterrorism mission in northwest Syria on Thursday, the Pentagon said, a raid which Syrian sources said was believed to have targeted an Al-Qaedalinked jihadist.
Syrian rescue workers said at least 13 people including six children and four women were killed by clashes and explosions that erupted after the raid began, targeting a house in the Atmeh area near the Turkish border. “US Special Operations forces under the control of US Central Command conducted a counter-terrorism mission this evening in northwest Syria. The mission was successful,” Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby said in a statement.
“There were no US casualties. More information will be provided as it becomes available.” He did not identify the target. A number of jihadist groups with links to Al-Qaeda operate in northwestern Syria, the last major bastion of rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad in the decade-long Syrian war. Leaders
of the Islamic State group have also hidden out in the area.
Several rebel sources said they were almost certain the target was a leading jihadist, but could not be sure who.
Residents said helicopters landed and heavy gunfire and explosions were heard during the raid that began around midnight. US forces used loud speakers to warn women and children to leave the area, they said. A video taken by a resident and seen by Reuters showed the bodies of two apparently lifeless children and a man in the rubble of a building at the location.
More footage showed rescue workers loading what appeared to be a small body wrapped in a white plastic sheet into an ambulance. Other body bags were in the back of the vehicle.
Using head torches in the dark, the workers looked for remains through chunks of concrete, children’s soft toys and women’s clothing in a bombedout building. A kitchen was burnt, windows hung from their frames and plastic utensils were half melted.
A Syrian man who witnessed the raid said he went out of his house after midnight and saw aircraft in the sky. “Ten minutes later we heard screams. ‘Surrender, the house is surrounded,’” he said. “We heard fire. There was shelling from airplanes and machine guns.”
One witness who lives nearby said he saw several bodies at the scene. “There was blood everywhere,” he told Reuters. He added that one US helicopter appeared to suffer a mechanical failure and was blown up by the
US forces. A rebel official said the jihadist who was the apparent target of the raid was with his family at the time.
Jihadists in northwestern Syria include Huras al-Din (Guardians of Religion), an Al-Qaeda-affiliated faction whose leaders include foreign fighters.