Rare US helicopter raid on government-held village in northeast Syria kills elder Islamic State a militant hiding there and a separate US airstrike later Thursday killed two others, according to the US military.
The United States has carried out previous raids in Syria against members of the Islamic State, but Thursday’s would be the first known operation against the group in an area held by forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad.
Early Thursday, US special forces carried out the rare operation on the government-held village of Muluk Saray in the northeastern province of Hasakeh, Syrian state television reported on its Telegram channel. .
US Army Central Command said the target was Rakkan Wahid al-Shammri, an Islamic State operative “known to facilitate the smuggling of weapons and fighters”. He said he was killed during the operation, while one of his associates was wounded and two others detained by US forces.
“No U.S. forces were injured or killed during the operation, no civilians were killed or injured, and there was no loss or damage to U.S. equipment,” the command said. Florida-based central, which oversees US troops in the Middle East.
He did not specify the precise location of the raid, describing it only as near the village of Qamishli, located on the Syrian-Turkish border.
Later Thursday, the Central Command said a separate US airstrike at 6:32 p.m. (1532 GMT) in northern Syria killed an Islamic State leader named Abu-Hashum al-Umawi and another senior ISIS official. group associated with it.
A security source said the man who was killed in the previous US raid was responsible for coordinating Islamic State sleeper cells in the area.
“This operation aims to expand the scope of targeting members of this organization in different parts of Syria,” the source added.
The second security source said US forces took his body with them as they retreated.
A local source said the man had moved in recent years to the village of Muluk Saray from Taif, a town near the border with Iraq that was once an Islamic State stronghold.
“People thought he was a shepherd – no one knows his real identity,” the source said.
The local source said US forces also raided a building used by Syrian security and detained “several people” there.
Other locals confirmed the raid to Reuters.
One said US helicopters landed in the village after midnight and told residents over loudspeakers to stay inside and keep their lights off. The resident specifies that the operation lasted several hours and that there was no exchange of fire with the American troops.
The United States leads a military coalition fighting ISIS in Syria. In July, the Pentagon said so killed the biggest IS jihadist in Syria in a drone strike in the north of the country. Central Command said he was “one of the first five” leaders of IS.
The July strike came five months after an overnight US raid on the town of Atme, which led to the Death of IS leader Abu Ibrahim al-Qurashi.
US officials said Qurashi died when he detonated a bomb to avoid capture.
After losing their last territory to a military attack backed by the US-led coalition in March 2019, IS remnants in Syria have mostly retreated to desert hideouts.
They have since used these hideouts to ambush Kurdish-led forces and Syrian government troops while continuing to mount attacks in Iraq.