Two senior members of the Islamic State jihadist group were killed today in a raid by US forces in eastern Syria, the US military’s Middle East Command (Centcom) announced.
In a statement, Centcom said its forces “successfully conducted a helicopter raid in eastern Syria” in the early hours, killing “two operatives of the Islamic State group”.
One of the two goes by the name Anas, and was a high-ranking official of the organization in Syria “who had been involved in planning bloody operations” in the eastern part of the country. The announcement does not provide any information about the latter. “Extensive planning has gone into this one-sided operation to ensure its success. The initial assessment indicates that there were no civilian casualties,” the statement added, underscoring the U.S. commitment to countering the threat posed by the extremist group “in cooperation with local forces.”
According to the director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdel Rahman, the operation was carried out in cooperation with elements of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF, dominated by Kurdish fighters), in Al-Zor, a village in Deir Ezzor province.
Hundreds of US troops deployed to northeastern Syria as part of the anti-jihadist coalition continue to fight alongside the SDF and target IS leaders in the country after the group’s defeat in 2017 in Iraq and 2019 in Syria.
On October 27, 2019, the United States announced the death of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi during a US operation in northwestern Syria.
In February 2022, al-Baghdadi’s successor, Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurasi, was killed in a US special forces operation in northwestern Syria.
The Islamic State announced on November 30 the death of its successor, Abu Hassan al-Hashimi al-Qurasi, without specifying the circumstances. According to Centcom, he was killed in mid-October during an operation in the southern province of Deraa by former rebels. He was immediately replaced by Abu Al-Hussein al-Husseini al-Qurasi, according to IS.
Source: News Beast
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