The attackers met a house full of fanatics and children when helicopters carrying 50 US commandos landed in Syria an hour after midnight.
A teddy bunny, a blue plastic swing, and a crib were among the baby comforts inside. So was the accouterment to violence, such as the explosive Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi is reported to have used to blow up himself, his family, and maybe others in his close vicinity, according to US sources.
It was a daring raid in an extremist stronghold in northwest Syria, months in the making, and carried out with the awareness that children, as well as the pursued, IS chief, would perish if the building’s residents did not flee when given the opportunity.
Thursday’s alleged suicide bombing occurred before or during a two-hour firefight. According to first responders, 13 individuals died, six of whom were children. According to military officials, no US commandos were injured.
President Joe Biden, who ordered the raid, claimed the world now knows who was behind the “genocide of the Yazidi people in northwestern Iraq in 2014,” when massacres wiped out towns, thousands of women and young girls were sold into slavery, and rape was used as a weapon of war.
“This vile terrorist leader is no more thanks to the valor of our men,” Biden added.
GETTING READY
U.S. intelligence had to first pinpoint al- Qurayshi’s location and comprehend his movements — or lack thereof — after months of planning. They decided that he only left his family’s third-floor lodgings to bathe on the building’s roof on rare occasions.
Anticipating that al-Qurayshi would choose suicide by self-detonation if trapped by US forces, US officials commissioned a distant engineering study of the three-story, cinder-block building to see if it would collapse and kill everyone within in that scenario.
They came to the conclusion that enough of the building would survive such a blow to save individuals who were not near him.
They built a tabletop model of the residence, which they displayed in the Situation Room, the ultra-secure White House command and communications post where presidents and their national security advisers manage emergencies, in December.
A lower-ranking Islamic State leader and his family lived on the second floor of the Syrian residence, which was similarly white. According to US sources, the ground floor, which was partly a basement, was home to a family unaffiliated with the Islamic State and uninformed of al- Qurayshi’s existence or significance.
After U.S. forces were sure they would find al-Qurayshi — also known as Haji Abdullah — where they did, operational commanders briefed Biden in detail for the first time more than a month ago.
The Islamic State, which formerly held most of Iraq and parts of Syria, has been trying to resurrect itself, and last month staged its biggest ambitious operation in years when it took a jail in northeast Syria housing at least 3,000 IS captives.
Biden couldn’t afford to lose sight of IS despite his brinkmanship with Russia as it gathers forces for a possible fresh invasion of Ukraine.
He gave the go-ahead to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley in the Oval Office on Tuesday morning. Biden was in the Situation Room in Washington on Wednesday evening, watching a live feed of the mission unfold.
THE OBJECTIVE
Jamil el-Deddo, who was in his refugee camp near the raid, heard aircraft and an explosion during the night and assumed it was the infamous barrel bombs “that used to be dropped on us” during the Syrian conflict. President Bashar Assad’s army utilized explosive-packed barrels against opponents, killing and injuring them indiscriminately.
“The first minutes were terrible,” el-Deddo told reporters. “No one had any idea what was going on.”
After “deconflicting” the mission with “a range of groups,” the US conducted the raid from an unnamed location in the region. This is military jargon for informing other military troops or interests in the vicinity, such as Russia, that a US operation is underway.
The building’s residents were told to evacuate right away.
Through a loudspeaker, a man speaking in an Iraqi accent said, “If you don’t leave, we have orders.” “We’ll launch rockets at the house.” Drones are hovering in the sky.”
According to Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby, ten people left the building, including a man and woman from the first level and eight children from the first and second floors.
Soon after, there was an explosion that destroyed much of the third story and blew bodies out of the home, including al- Qurayshi’s. The detonation was more powerful than one expected from a suicide vest, according to US Central Command commander Gen. Frank McKenzie.
The trapped IS lieutenant, who officials did not identify, and a woman believed to be his wife exchanged persistent gunfire with the commandos from the second level, according to US sources. Both perished in the fighting, according to US officials, and one of their children was also found dead, McKenzie added.
The mission’s special operations soldiers faced threats from both inside and outside the structure.
Several foreign militants linked to al-Qaida in Syria “began maneuvering with guns toward U.S. personnel” at the location while the commandos were clearing the second story, McKenzie said. At least two of them were killed, he added, by gunfire from a US helicopter.
According to McKenzie, another helicopter suffered a serious problem. The Americans rigged it to explode after landing it safely away from the area, then attacked it with weapons from the air to be very sure “no sensitive equipment would remain in Syria.”
A paramedic rushed a tiny child out of the house into an ambulance, according to videos provided by Syrian opposition group Syrian Civil Defense, commonly known as White Helmets. Later, a photo of a girl with blood on her face surfaced on social media, depicting a girl who appeared to be around five years old.
According to a US official who briefed the press on condition of anonymity, when the commandos safely withdrew, Biden said, “God bless our troops.” Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security adviser, kept him updated on their midnight flight out of Syria.
AFTERMATH
Blood could be visible on the walls and floor of what was left of the structure in later photographs. A wooden cot and a stuffed rabbit doll were found in a destroyed bedroom. The baby swing was still hanging on one of the shattered walls.
There was no quick accounting from the United States of how many children perished in total and how they died in the fog of war. The White House said three of the children died as a result of al- Qurayshi’s detonation but the Pentagon said two, leaving the number of children killed in the fighting undetermined for the time being.
To avoid civilian losses, US Marines selected a riskier commando operation over an air attack, according to Biden.
Despite this, the US launched the operation knowing that the IS leader could retaliate by killing innocent people as well as himself. McKenzie stated that the US will investigate whether innocent persons were killed by its soldiers “as always.”
