© APPeople inspect a destroyed house following an operation by the US military in the Syrian village of Atmeh, after US special forces conducted a large-scale raid overnight
Al-Qurayshi's death was announced by US President Joe Biden on Thursday, hours after US commandoes attacked an address in Atmeh, northwestern Syria. The deadly overnight raid led to other casualties, with first responders telling The Independent that 13 people had been killed, including six children and four women.
American troops landed in helicopters and clashed for hours with gunmen, witnesses said. Residents described continuous gunfire and explosions that jolted the town of Atmeh near the Turkish border, an area dotted with camps for internally displaced people from Syria's civil war.
"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," Mr Biden said in a statement.
He said all Americans involved in the operation returned safely and that the US had worked to minimise casualties.
Comment: They obviously didn't work too hard. UNICEF released a statement confirming that at least 6 children were killed as a result of the shelling, adding that "civilian-populated areas were severely damaged." The nonsense about minimizing casualties is a laughable comment, especially given the US track record with regards to killing civilians.
The opposition-run Syrian Civil Defence, also known as the White Helmets, said the victims were killed in shelling and a battle that followed after the US commando raid.
They said that the raid went on for three hours and they managed to rescue an injured child whose entire family had been killed in the operation.
Footage apparently taken at the scene showed men digging through the rubble of a partially destroyed three-storey house. In another clip shared online, that was purportedly taken nearby showed rescuers carrying an injured girl.
Residents of Atmeh said they heard helicopters circling overhead before soldiers alighted and US forces began their raid which resulted in a several hour battle.
Terrified and alone with her mother and sister, Sima, 22 (not her real name) said they moved away from the windows as a precaution.
"We heard a voice from loudspeakers saying the woman and children should get out of the house that was being targeted. But we didn't know which house was the target," she said sharing audio she recorded of the helicopters and her panicked relatives.
"We heard the sound of clashes and fighting. First the aircraft, then the sound of shelling then at 2am what sounded like machine guns from the helicopter. It went on until past 3 o'clock".
She said that they also heard what sounded like six airstrikes. Her family, who are internally displaced from another part of Syria, did not know who was living in the three-storey house that had been hit.
"Most of the second floor is now missing, inside there was a lot of destruction," she said. Videos taken from the scene and shared online showed blood-smeared walls.
An Iraqi intelligence official, who had knowledge of the raid told The Independent, that al-Qurashi blew up a suicide belt he was wearing.
Comment: Certainly seems like a lot of destruction for a suicide belt.
The official, who could not be named as he is not authorised to speak to the media, said that Iraqi intelligence services had played a "pivotal" role in the attack.
"About seven aircraft were used including drones and a helicopter," he added. "Qurashi barricaded himself in using his family," he added.
The raid was in an area largely controlled by Turkish-backed fighters but is also an al-Qaeda stronghold and home to several of its top operatives. Other militants, including extremists from the rival Isis group, have also sought refuge in the region.
Jamil el-Deddo, a resident of a nearby refugee camp told The Associated Press that the first moments were "terrifying, no one knew what was happening".
"We were worried it could be Syrian aircraft, which brought back memories of barrel bombs that used to be dropped on us," he added, referring to crude explosives-filled containers used by President Bashar Assad's forces against opponents during the Syrian conflict.
The top floor of the house was almost totally destroyed in Thursday's raid, with the ceiling and walls knocked out.
Former Isis chief Abu Bakr al Baghdadi was killed in a President Trump-era raid, also on Idlib in 2019.
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"Daesh is an American-made project that aims to sow chaos, fear and murder in the countries of the world and systematically destroy them," said the governor of the Syrian province of Al-Hasakah (northeast), Qasan Halim Jalil.
Jalil also criticized the silence of the international community and the United Nations Organization (UN) in the face of the US deployment of thousands of Daesh terrorists in Syria.
Furthermore, he criticized the ineffective and negative role of international organizations and the United Nations in the clashes between the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a Kurdish militia supported by Washington, and Daesh elements in the province.
In this regard, he denounced that during the recent clashes between Kurdish militiamen and Daesh, more than 4,000 families, or about 30,000 civilians, were displaced from the southern neighborhoods of Al-Hasaka. The displacement of these people, according to the governor, is due to the bombing of US planes and the false conflict between Daesh and US-affiliated militiamen.Washington and its allies have settled in Syria since 2014, without adequate authorization from the Syrian government, under the pretext of fighting the Daesh terrorist group. Meanwhile, as former US President Donald Trump admitted in his time, those troops have been used in the Arab country to search for and plunder oil resources in northeastern Syria.
In addition, the occupation troops have dedicated themselves to supporting, in various capacities, the extremist gangs present in Syria, with the ultimate goal of overthrowing the Syrian government. Russian analysts: with the United States, terrorists feel at ease in SyriaFor its part, the Damascus government has repeatedly denounced the military presence of the US occupation forces in Syria, accusing Washington of supplying, training, financing and arming terrorist gangs in order to overthrow the legitimate executive of the Syrian president, Bashar al- Assad, who has promised over and over again to steal the country from terrorists and expel the invaders
There is ample documentation and irrefutable evidence of the complicity of the US intelligence services in the creation of Daesh, along with Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Among other things, the sensational confession of the former premier of Qatar and various members of the Obama administration, as well as the former US ambassador to Syria. The project was launched to give the US the pretext of overthrowing the governments of Syria and Iraq and proceeding to a balkanization of the region according to a pre-established plan. The plan failed thanks to the intervention of Russia and the resistance forces (Syrian Army, Hezbollah and Iran) who fought a bloody war against terrorists and their sponsors.
The Al-Mayadeen reporter, citing local sources, reported that 4 helicopters belonging to the International Coalition carried out a landing operation near the city of Atma, north of Idlib, which resulted in civilian casualties, including women and children.
The sources stressed that "the American soldiers asked the inhabitants of one of the houses to leave through the loudspeakers, while violent clashes broke out that lasted more than half an hour, during which the escape of the prominent person whom the Americans were chasing was successful. ".
The sources indicated that "the coalition soldiers, after the failure of their mission, which lasted more than half an hour, with their helicopters targeted two houses and completely destroyed them above their residents, causing casualties among civilians. ".
There have been conflicting reports about the targeted leadership figures, between a prominent leader of the Organization of the Guardians of Religion, Abu Hussam al-Britani, or the leaders of ISIS, Abu Ubaidah al-Iraqi and Omar Qardish Turki.
The sources of the militants confirmed, on their social platforms, that "all the victims who fell in the area of the aerial target are civilians, and among them there is no dead leader".
Reuters cited "Syrian civil protection", "at least 13 people, including 6 children, were killed in the clashes after the US landing".
For his part, a spokesman for the US Department of Defense, John Kirby, said that "the US special forces under central command carried out a mission to fight terrorism in northwestern Syria today, Thursday", underlining "the success of the mission, and no American casualties ”.
A number of American soldiers were injured in the landing process
At the same time, the Russian "Sputnik" agency reported that a number of elite US military soldiers were injured in clashes that broke out immediately after the air launch.
He explained that "the clashes between American forces and the armed men who control the area have continued for hours in the vicinity of the border area of Atma, the extreme north-west of Syria".
"Sputnik" also indicated that the target of the landing operation was one of the leaders of the terrorist organization, called Abu Obeida, who had taken refuge inside the home of the leader of the Organization of Guardians of Religion Abu Hussam al- Britans.
The New York Times reported that one of the American planes crashed during the launch operation in northwestern Syria.
At the same time, the Syrian Opposition Observatory said that "the landing operation near Atmeh is the largest for the coalition since the US Special Forces operation in Idlib, which resulted in the October 27 death of the ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, in 2019 “.
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1. In January, for a long time, it was possible to observe a visual disgrace of the United States and the Kurds in Hasakah, who first allowed the capture of the prison with ISIS militants, and then for a long time tried to return the captured prison under surveillance even after some of the militants slipped safely away from the captured object.
2. The large number of casualties, the fleeing militants and the timing of the repression of the uprising have caused serious accusations in the American press against the American strategy in Rojava in general and the effectiveness of the US-sponsored Kurds in particular.
3. After some time, in order to prove "the effectiveness of the occupation", the liquidation of Al-Qurayshi is carried out, which is attempted to provide in the same unique style as the liquidation of Bin Laden (which was also talked about many questions ) or the liquidation of Al-Baghdadi (again, however, he also had questions).
4. Of the 13 people - 10 killed, these are civilians (4 women, 6 children, including minors) and, according to US assurances, they were not the ones who killed either, but Quraishi blew up the belt. suicide and the United States has nothing to do with the deaths of women and children. Along the way, during the operation, they lost a helicopter, which they ended up with drones.
5. At the same time, Quraishi lived quite quietly in the territory of the Turkish occupation zone, in the "security square" next to the police station, the HTS * checkpoint and the border checkpoint. He lived for 11 months, as other ISIS leaders lived quietly before him. This is the question of what is the "free Idlib" zone covered by the United States, where the leaders of ISIS and Al-Qaeda * live quietly for the moment. For some reason, in Assad-controlled territory, ISIS leaders prefer not to live.
6. According to Biden, the operation was planned just the other day (from the reception of the information to the operation - 3 days), that is, after the end of the events in Hasaka. And Al-Qurayshi would have been involved in organizing the attack, even though the militants who attacked the prison were not from Idlib, but from Anbar province (in Iraq). No evidence has been presented that Quraishi had anything to do with Hasaka's attack.
7. In general, it seems that the United States urgently needs to demonstrate success in the "fight against terrorism" (difficult to get through the assault on prison), therefore, almost by accident, one of the leaders of ISIS (who was officially wanted for many years) is in the territory of the Turkish occupation zone, living quite quietly with his family in a "security square" 2 km from the Turkish border (Baghdadi lived 5 km from the Turkish border).
Nor would I rule out that the Americans had known for a long time where he was hiding, for example, from his colleagues in Turkish military intelligence.