Biden: We’ve taken ISIS leader off the battlefield
Jihadi blew himself up with family as US special forces closed in
THE leader of terror group Islamic State died yesterday following a dramatic night raid by 50 US Special Forces troops in Syria.
The secret mission targeting Abu Ibrahim al-Qurayshi culminated with the soldiers closing in on him. The Isis chief then gathered his family members around him and set off an explosive device which killed them all.
US President Joe Biden said last night: ‘At my direction, US military forces in northwest Syria successfully undertook a counter-terrorism 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 – the leader of Isis. All Americans have returned safely from the operation.’
The operation followed weeks of intelligence gathering and coordination with proWestern Kurdish groups in Idlib province where he had been hiding. In the early hours of yesterday, a fleet of MH-60 helicopters carrying 50 elite soldiers landed near al-Qurayshi’s desert hideout in the village of Atmeh, not far from the Turkish border.
The troops, armed with high-powered assault rifles and wearing night vision goggles, surrounded the three-storey building shared by the Isis chief and local civilians.
US troops sealed off the area and used loudspeakers to plead with civilians to leave the building and for the terror chief and his bodyguards to give themselves up.
When they refused, a deafening two-hour gunfight followed with machine gun rounds and missiles bombarding the building and causing the walls to partially collapse. Windows and doors were also blown out. Realising he could not escape, al-Qurayshi is believed to have detonated an explosive device, possibly a suicide vest, killing himself and family members.
US forces entered the building and the bodies of nine men, women and children were recovered from the rubble. In total, 13 people are understood to have been killed.
No coalition troops were wounded or killed. A broken down helicopter was later destroyed by a missile strike. Al-Qurayshi’s death was confirmed by fingerprint analysis and DNA samples.
The mission resembled the operation which killed al-Qurayshi’s predecessor Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. He also killed himself to avoid being captured alive.