ISIS leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi blows himself and his family up during US Raid

[MenInG]

The leader of Islamic State has been killed during a raid by US special forces in Syria.

Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi exploded a bomb that killed himself and members of his family as the raid began on a house in the rebel-held province of Idlib.

He was among 13 people who died during the operation, which lasted two hours.

There were no US military casualties.

US President Joe Biden announced the killing in a statement, saying: "Thanks to the skill and bravery of our Armed Forces, we have taken off the battlefield Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi."

He said troops "successfully undertook a counterterrorism operation to protect the American people and our allies, and make the world a safer place".

Mr Biden said he will address the American people later today, adding: "May God protect our troops."

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A US administration official blamed the civilian casualties on the explosive used by militants.

President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and members of the president’s national security team observing the operation
Al-Quraishi was named as the second leader of IS after founder Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed in October 2019.

"While we are still assessing the results of this operation, this appears to be the same cowardly terrorist tactic we saw in the 2019 operation that eliminated al-Baghdadi," the US official said.

IS has been trying for a resurgence in the region, launching a series of attacks that include an assault on a prison last month.

US special forces used helicopters to land near the house and launch their assault on the house, which first responders say led to the deaths of 13 people.

Six children and four women are believed to have died.

The top floor of the house was destroyed during the clash and body parts were seen scattered near the site.

https://news.sky.com/story/us-speci...al-hashimi-al-qurayshi-in-syria-raid-12531902

 

[MenInG]

AMMAN/WASHINGTON, Feb 3 (Reuters) - The leader of the jihadist group Islamic State died in a U.S. special forces raid in northern Syria on Thursday when he detonated a bomb that killed him and family members, the U.S. administration said.

Abu Ibrahim al-Hashemi al-Quraishi had led the group since the death of its founder Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who was also killed when he detonated explosives during a U.S. raid in 2019.


"Thanks to the skill and bravery of our armed forces, we have taken off the battlefield...the leader of ISIS. All Americans have returned safely from the operation," U.S. President Joe Biden said in a statement.

Quraishi had remained largely in the shadows since succceeding Baghdadi who led the group at the height of its self-declared caliphate, when it controlled swathes of Syria and Iraq and ruled over millions of people.

Since its defeat on the battlefield nearly three years ago, the group has been waging insurgent attacks in Iraq and Syria.

A damaged building is seen in the aftermath of a counter-terrorism mission conducted by the U.S. Special Operations Forces in Atmeh, Syria, February 3, 2022 in this picture obtained from social media. Courtesy of Mohamed Al-Daher/via REUTERS

A senior U.S. administration official told Reuters Quraishi was killed in the raid.

"At the beginning of the operation the terrorist target exploded a bomb that killed him and members of his own family, including women and children," the official said.

Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby earlier described Thursday's raid as a successful counter-terrorism mission, saying there were no U.S. casualties.

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.

U.S. military procedures to guard against civilian casualties are currently under scrutiny following a high-profile mistaken drone strike in Afghanistan that the Pentagon initially hailed a success.

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.

Residents said helicopters landed and heavy gunfire and explosions were heard during the raid that began around midnight. U.S. forces used loud speakers to warn women and children to leave the area, they said.

 

[MenInG]

WASHINGTON, Feb 3 (Reuters) - U.S. forces rehearsed the helicopter raid over and over, hoping to capture Islamic State's leader on the third floor of a residential building in a Syrian town on the Turkish border, where he was holed up with his family.

But before they could reach him, Abu Ibrahim al-Hashemi al-Quraishi detonated a suicide bomb, triggering a large explosion that blew mangled bodies -- including his own -- out of the building into the streets outside.

President Joe Biden, who monitored the raid from the White House's Situation Room, called Quraishi's suicide a "final act of desperate cowardice." It echoed of the self-detonation of a bomb by his predecessor, Islamic State founder Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, during a U.S. raid in 2019 in Syria.

For residents in the town of Atmeh, the events were terrifying, as U.S. forces swept in aboard helicopters before trying to evacuate civilians from the cinder-block building, using loudspeakers to tell them to leave.

"Men, women, and children raise your hands. You are in safety of the American coalition that is surrounding the area. You will die if you don't get out," said one woman recounting the U.S. warnings.

Marine General Frank McKenzie, who oversees U.S. forces in the region and was providing updates to Biden, said U.S. troops got six civilians, including four children, to leave the first floor of the building before the blast ripped apart the top floor.

"The explosion, which was more massive than would be expected from a suicide vest, killed everyone on the third floor and in fact ejected multiple people from the building," McKenzie said, adding that Quraishi, his wife and two children died.

A second U.S. official later said two of Quraishi's wives and one child were killed.

As U.S. troops advanced to the second floor, one of Quraishi's lieutenants and his wife started firing on the Americans and were killed. One child was found dead there, McKenzie said, and three other children and an infant were brought to safety from the second floor.

Syrian rescue workers said at least 13 people died, most of them women and children.

The Pentagon said at least two armed members of a local al Qaeda affiliate were killed by gunfire from a U.S. helicopter after they approached the scene of the raid while U.S. troops were still at the site.

TARGET ON THIRD FLOOR

U.S. officials said Quraishi's death was another setback for a group that once ruled a self-proclaimed caliphate stretching across territory in Syria and Iraq. It is now waging insurgent attacks.

Planning for the operation began in early December, when officials became convinced the Islamic State leader was living in the building, the officials said. Biden received a detailed briefing on options for capturing Quraishi alive on Dec. 20, a senior White House official said.

One official said the operation was complicated by the fact Quraishi rarely left his residence on the building's third floor and relied on couriers to interact with the outside world.

The number of children seen in the area and families believed to be living on the first floor led U.S. officials to try to craft a mission aiming to safeguard civilians, they said.

That ultimately required putting U.S. forces at risk in a raid, instead of launching a remote strike, the officials said.

U.S. military procedures to guard against civilian casualties are under scrutiny following a high-profile mistaken drone strike in Kabul during the U.S. evacuation of civilians from Afghanistan that the Pentagon initially hailed a success.

The Pentagon said it would review all the information from the Atmeh raid to ensure no civilians were harmed by U.S. forces, but stressed all indications so far were that civilian deaths were caused by Islamic State fighters themselves.

Biden gave final approvals for the mission on Tuesday during an Oval Office meeting with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and General Mark Milley, who as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is the top American military officer, U.S. officials said.

Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and other administration officials received real-time updates from Austin, Milley and McKenzie as they watched the operation unfold on several screens from the Situation Room, the officials said.

Biden joined the group in the Situation Room around 5 p.m. ET on Wednesday after finishing a call with French President Emmanuel Macron on an unrelated topic, the White House official said.

At one point, a helicopter involved in the raid suffered a mechanical failure and had to be destroyed rather than left behind, the Pentagon said.

Biden said "God bless our troops" once U.S. forces were wheels up after the operation, and kept tabs on them during the night as they flew to safety, officials said.

Once U.S. forces were in safety, Biden reflected on an airstrike carried out in 2015 - when he was serving as vice president - that killed another ISIS leader and injured Quraishi, costing him a leg, the White House official said.

Milley told Biden that U.S. forces hit "a visual ID jackpot" when they viewed Quraishi's body and confirmed his identity using biometric data taken from a fingerprint during the flight back, the official said. They waited to announce his death until after a DNA test was completed, the official added.

"He was on our target list from the earliest days of the campaign. He was Baghdadi's right-hand man, and ... was personally responsible for some of the most vicious ISIS atrocities," the official.

 

[MenInG]

Seems like another movie coming up about this...

 

[mazkhan]

More propaganda most likely the whole building was taken out by the usa . How can a suicide belt take out a 3 storey building how big was this bomb he strapped on himself.

 

[Firebat]

Suspected Islamic State chief Qurayshi killed in Syria, Turkey says

Turkish forces have killed the suspected leader of Islamic State (IS) in Syria, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has announced.

Abu Hussein al-Qurayshi is believed to have taken over the group after his predecessor died in a raid in February.

Mr Erdogan told broadcaster TRT Turk the IS leader was "neutralised" in a Turkish MIT intelligence agency operation on Saturday.

IS has so far made no comment on the reported operation.

The BBC has been unable to independently verify President Erdogan's claim.

The MIT intelligence agency had been following Qurayshi for a "long time", Mr Erdogan said.

"We will continue our struggle with terrorist organisations without any discrimination," he added, providing no further details.

Syrian sources quoted by Reuters news agency said the operation took place in the northern town of Jandaris, close to the Turkish border.

In February, then-IS leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi set off a blast killing himself and his family as US special forces rounded on his hideout after a gunfight.

That operation "removed a major terrorist threat to the world", US President Joe Biden said at the time.

In November, the jihadist group announced the death of its leader, Abu al-Hassan al-Hashemi al-Qurayshi. The US said he was killed in an operation by the rebel Free Syrian Army in south-west Syria in mid-October.

IS once held 88,000sq km (34,000sq miles) of territory stretching from north-eastern Syria across northern Iraq and imposed its brutal rule on almost eight million people.

The group was driven from its last piece of territory in 2019, but the UN warned in July that it remained a persistent threat.

It is estimated to have between 6,000 and 10,000 fighters in Syria and Iraq, who are based mostly in rural areas and continue to carry out hit-and-run attacks, ambushes and roadside bombings.

IS regional affiliates also pose threats in other conflict zones across the world. The UN said the most vigorous and well-established networks were based in Afghanistan, Somalia and the Lake Chad basin.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-65445007

 

[MenInG]

So killed again?

 

[Sidilicious]

So killed again?

Different people

 

[Bewal Express]

These losers did so much damage to the image of Muslims- good riddance to bad rubbish

 

[The Bald Eagle]

Daesh chief Abu Khadija killed in US-Iraq operation

Abu Khadija, also known as Abdallah Makki Muslih al-Rufayi, the leader of Daesh terrorist organisation Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), has been killed in a joint operation by Iraqi security forces and the US-led coalition.

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani confirmed the development on Friday (March 14), calling Abu Khadija “one of the most dangerous terrorists in Iraq and the world.”

The operation took place in Iraq’s western Al Anbar province, where US Central Command (CENTCOM) forces, in collaboration with Iraqi intelligence and security forces, carried out a precision airstrike on March 13.

The strike successfully targeted Abu Khadija, who was ISIS’s second-in-command globally and a key figure in the group's operations, logistics, and financial network.

US President Donald Trump announced the news on his Truth Social platform, stating that the ISIS leader was "relentlessly hunted down by our intrepid warfighters." He further declared, "His miserable life was terminated, along with another member of ISIS, in coordination with the Iraqi Government and the Kurdish Regional Government. PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH!"

CENTCOM also released a statement on X (formerly Twitter), confirming that the ISIS leader was identified through DNA analysis. The agency revealed that Abu Khadija and another ISIS operative were found wearing unexploded suicide vests and were heavily armed at the time of their deaths.

Source: The Express Tribune