U.S. Captured senior ISIS Leader During Raid In Syria Wednesday
By Donald Standeford, Correspondent - Follow -
Date Published: June 17, 2022 6:10PM UTC
Last Modified: June 17, 2022 6:10PM UTC
SYRIA - The U.S. military captured a senior Islamic State leader during the night raid in northern Syria on Wednesday night who the coalition stated was an experienced bomb maker and operational facilitator.
A U.S. defense official told ABC that there were no casualties and no damage to aircraft during the raid, and the U.S. military, and said that the individual "was assessed to be an experienced bomb maker and facilitator who became one of the group’s top leaders in Syria".
A U.S. official also named the suspect, Hani Ahmed al-Kurdi saying that he was "actively planning ISIS operations".
The commander of U.S. Central Command Gen. Michael Kurilla said in a statement that "Though degraded, ISIS remains a threat. We remain dedicated to its defeat. Last night’s operation, which took a senior ISIS operator off the battlefield, demonstrates our commitment to the security of the Middle East and to the enduring defeat of ISIS".
The report said that the raid, as well as other raids like it in northwest Syria "controlled either by extremists or Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government,” are “risky.”
Troops were dropped in al-Humayra in the Aleppo province by two helicopters, close to the Turkish border, after which there were seven minutes of armed clashes between the troops and those in the village before the helicopters took off again, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
After that took place, the helicopters then landed at a base in Kobane, in the eastern Aleppo province controlled by Turkish-backed rebel factions.
Mohammed Youssef, who is a resident of al-Humayra told the AFP news agency that the troops had raided a house on the edge of the village where he believed people were staying who were displaced from the city of Aleppo.
"After the helicopters left, we went towards the house and found the women tied up and the children in the field. They took one man with them, but we don't know where the other men are. After we untied them [the women], they said: 'They took a man named Fawaz".
