TERRORISMU.S. Strikes IS Leadership Twice in 24 Hours
A weakened and wary Islamic State terror group suffered a new round of setbacks when U.S. forces targeted three key leaders in two operations across northern Syria in a single day.
A weakened and wary Islamic State terror group suffered a new round of setbacks when U.S. forces targeted three key leaders in two operations across northern Syria in a single day.
The U.S. confirmed the first operation, announcing that U.S. special forces had conducted a helicopter raid early Thursday near the northeastern village of Qamishli, in an area controlled by forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), which oversees American forces in Syria and much of the Middle East, said the target of the operation, Rakkan Wahid al-Shammri, was killed and one of his associates was injured. Two other associates were captured.
U.S. military and intelligence officials described al-Shammri as a longtime IS operative who played a key role in smuggling weapons and fighters to support the terror group’s operations.
Activists with the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that the early morning U.S. raid took place in the village of Moluk Saray, about 17 kilometers south of Qamishli, and that the target was killed after refusing to surrender.
The activists further identified the two men taken into custody as an Iraqi national and a commander of a “military security faction.”
VOA could not independently confirm the activists’ claims.
Later Thursday, the U.S. military delivered what may have been an even bigger blow, launching a precision airstrike just after 6 p.m. local time in northern Syria, killing two more high-ranking IS officials.
In a statement shared with VOA, CENTCOM said the strike killed Abu ‘Ala, described as one of the terror group’s “top five,” who served as the deputy leader of ISIS in Syria.
A second IS official, Abu Mu’Ad al-Qahtani, said to be responsible for prisoner affairs, was also killed.
The airstrike was first reported by Fox News.
CENTCOM officials said that the airstrike was the result of “more than 1,000 hours of intelligence collection to each of the two targets” and that initial assessments showed no civilian casualties from the strike.
The U.S. strikes against IS came weeks after one of the top U.S. counterterrorism officials said IS has been stuck in “survival mode,” unable, for now, to overcome unrelenting counterterrorism pressure from the United States.
