uAccording to eyewitnesses, S-led forces attacked the home of a suspected member of the Islamist organization al Qaeda in Syria. Several helicopters landed near the town of Atmeh in the Syrian rebel province of Idlib and explosions were heard near the home of a foreign Islamist, residents of the town and sources from the rebels fighting the Syrian regime told Reuters on Thursday .
A local resident reported that rescue workers recovered at least 12 bodies, including women and children, from the rubble of a multi-storey building. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported on Thursday that 13 civilians had been killed in heavy fighting in north-western Syria. There was no confirmation that Islamists were killed in the attack.
“Whoever they were looking for, they apparently wanted him alive”
The US Department of Defense confirmed an anti-terrorist mission with US Army special forces. “The mission was successful,” it said in a statement on Thursday. The Pentagon did not initially give any further details.
Syria specialist Charles Lister from Washington’s Middle East Institute, citing eyewitnesses, reported that the operation lasted more than two hours. “Whoever they were looking for, they obviously wanted him alive.” According to Lister, this was “the largest operation of this kind since the anti-Baghdadi operation”. Islamic State (IS) leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed in a 2019 US special forces raid in northwestern Syria.
In the civil war country Syria, a military coalition led by the USA is fighting the terrorist militia Islamic State (IS). In the summer of 2014, IS took control of large areas in northern Iraq. Shortly thereafter, the extremists proclaimed a pseudo-caliphate, which also included regions in neighboring Syria. The terrorist militia was defeated militarily in March 2019, but is still active in both countries and repeatedly carries out attacks.
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