President Joe Biden on Thursday announced that the leader of the terrorist group Islamic State, Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi, died during an overnight raid by US special forces in Syria’s Idlib province that also left several civilians dead.
Al-Qurashi detonated an explosive vest he was wearing as US forces approached, killing himself and his family, “in a final act of desperate cowardice,”, President Biden said in a White House speech.
He took over as the leader of ISIS in 2019 after the United States counterterrorism operation killed al-Baghdadi, Biden said.
Since then, ISIS has directed terrorist operations targeting Americans, our Allies and our partners, and countless civilians in the Middle East, Africa, and in South Asia, Biden said.
The US had “removed a major terrorist threat to the world,” Biden said in a White House speech, adding that no soldiers had been harmed during the operation.
Among his litany of crimes, Biden said al-Qurashi was responsible for the January 20th attack by IS militants at a prison run by the US-backed Kurdish forces in the city of al-Hassakeh in north-eastern Syria, in a brazen operation aimed at freeing imprisoned IS members.
At least 13 people, including four children, were killed in the hours-long US operation on Thursday that resulted in al-Qurashi’s death, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor, reported.
The counterterrorism raid was mounted by air and land in the Atmeh area of Idlib province, not far from the Turkish border, under the cover of darkness.
“Last night’s operation took a major terrorist leader off the battlefield. And it sent a strong message to terrorists around the world: We will come after you and find you,” President Biden said.
“The professionalism, skill and readiness of our troops — honed through relentless rehearsal — has dealt ISIS a severe blow and has helped make our country and our fellow citizens safer,” Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin said in a statement.
Austin said al-Qurayshi, also known as Haji Abdullah, provided near constant operational guidance to ISIS fighters, including the prison break and attack at Hasakah and the slaughter of Yazidis in Iraq.
“He is now off the battlefield and out of command and cannot threaten any more lives,” Austin said.
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