First modification:
US special forces carried out what the Pentagon called a large-scale “counter-terrorist attack” in northwestern Syria on Thursday, February 3. Rescuers on the ground reported that 13 people were killed, including six children and four women.
For more than two hours, a US military operation shook the Syrian town of Atmeh, near the border with Turkey. At least 13 people died, including six minors and four women.
Special forces under the direction of US Central Command landed in helicopters near an area littered with camps for people internally displaced by the civil war.
According to Syrian sources, the target was a jihadist linked to Al-Qaeda and “attacks and clashes” were reported at the scene.
“The mission was successful (…) There were no US casualties. More information will be provided as it becomes available,” Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said in a brief statement in which he did not detail the target of the attack.
However, the Syrian Civil Defense, known as the White Helmets, a rescue group operating in opposition-controlled areas of the country, confirmed the civilian deaths. The deaths were also corroborated by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The witness accounts
Several witnesses, cited by the US agency AP, said they saw helicopters, explosions and machine gun fire. Later, body parts were found scattered around the raid site, a two-story house in the rebel-held province of Idlib.
“This went on for 45 minutes. There was no answer. Then the machine gun fire broke out,” said Omar Saleh, one of the residents of the area, who added that the shooting continued for two hours, while the US planes flew over the area.
Other residents and activists described witnessing a large ground assault, with US forces using loudspeakers to urge women and children to leave the area.
Taher al-Omar, an Idlib-based activist, claimed he witnessed clashes between fighters and the US force.
Video taken by a resident and seen by Reuters showed the apparently lifeless bodies of two children and a man in the rubble of a building at the site.
The presence of jihadists in northern Syria
Several extremist groups with links to al-Qaeda operate in northwestern Syria, the last major stronghold of the rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad in the war that broke out a decade ago.
For years, US forces have used drones to attack various radical groups in the area. However, the operation on February 3 would be the largest carried out by US forces in the northwest since the leader of the Islamic State, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was killed in a US special operation in 2019, he stressed. Charles Lister, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Middle East Institute.
Currently, the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group, the former Nusra Front, which was part of Al-Qaeda until 2016, is considered the most powerful extremist movement in the northwest of the country.
In addition, Islamic State fighters have re-emerged as a deadly threat and are hiding in the area.
In parallel, the Atmeh area is crammed with thousands of Syrian civilians who have been displaced by the war and live in makeshift camps or overcrowded housing.
With Reuters, AP and EFE
First modification:
US special forces carried out what the Pentagon called a large-scale “counter-terrorist attack” in northwestern Syria on Thursday, February 3. Rescuers on the ground reported that 13 people were killed, including six children and four women.
For more than two hours, a US military operation shook the Syrian town of Atmeh, near the border with Turkey. At least 13 people died, including six minors and four women.
Special forces under the direction of US Central Command landed in helicopters near an area littered with camps for people internally displaced by the civil war.
According to Syrian sources, the target was a jihadist linked to Al-Qaeda and “attacks and clashes” were reported at the scene.
“The mission was successful (…) There were no US casualties. More information will be provided as it becomes available,” Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said in a brief statement in which he did not detail the target of the attack.
However, the Syrian Civil Defense, known as the White Helmets, a rescue group operating in opposition-controlled areas of the country, confirmed the civilian deaths. The deaths were also corroborated by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The witness accounts
Several witnesses, cited by the US agency AP, said they saw helicopters, explosions and machine gun fire. Later, body parts were found scattered around the raid site, a two-story house in the rebel-held province of Idlib.
“This went on for 45 minutes. There was no answer. Then the machine gun fire broke out,” said Omar Saleh, one of the residents of the area, who added that the shooting continued for two hours, while the US planes flew over the area.
Other residents and activists described witnessing a large ground assault, with US forces using loudspeakers to urge women and children to leave the area.
Taher al-Omar, an Idlib-based activist, claimed he witnessed clashes between fighters and the US force.
Video taken by a resident and seen by Reuters showed the apparently lifeless bodies of two children and a man in the rubble of a building at the site.
The presence of jihadists in northern Syria
Several extremist groups with links to al-Qaeda operate in northwestern Syria, the last major stronghold of the rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad in the war that broke out a decade ago.
For years, US forces have used drones to attack various radical groups in the area. However, the operation on February 3 would be the largest carried out by US forces in the northwest since the leader of the Islamic State, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was killed in a US special operation in 2019, he stressed. Charles Lister, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Middle East Institute.
Currently, the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group, the former Nusra Front, which was part of Al-Qaeda until 2016, is considered the most powerful extremist movement in the northwest of the country.
In addition, Islamic State fighters have re-emerged as a deadly threat and are hiding in the area.
In parallel, the Atmeh area is crammed with thousands of Syrian civilians who have been displaced by the war and live in makeshift camps or overcrowded housing.
With Reuters, AP and EFE
First modification:
US special forces carried out what the Pentagon called a large-scale “counter-terrorist attack” in northwestern Syria on Thursday, February 3. Rescuers on the ground reported that 13 people were killed, including six children and four women.
For more than two hours, a US military operation shook the Syrian town of Atmeh, near the border with Turkey. At least 13 people died, including six minors and four women.
Special forces under the direction of US Central Command landed in helicopters near an area littered with camps for people internally displaced by the civil war.
According to Syrian sources, the target was a jihadist linked to Al-Qaeda and “attacks and clashes” were reported at the scene.
“The mission was successful (…) There were no US casualties. More information will be provided as it becomes available,” Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said in a brief statement in which he did not detail the target of the attack.
However, the Syrian Civil Defense, known as the White Helmets, a rescue group operating in opposition-controlled areas of the country, confirmed the civilian deaths. The deaths were also corroborated by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The witness accounts
Several witnesses, cited by the US agency AP, said they saw helicopters, explosions and machine gun fire. Later, body parts were found scattered around the raid site, a two-story house in the rebel-held province of Idlib.
“This went on for 45 minutes. There was no answer. Then the machine gun fire broke out,” said Omar Saleh, one of the residents of the area, who added that the shooting continued for two hours, while the US planes flew over the area.
Other residents and activists described witnessing a large ground assault, with US forces using loudspeakers to urge women and children to leave the area.
Taher al-Omar, an Idlib-based activist, claimed he witnessed clashes between fighters and the US force.
Video taken by a resident and seen by Reuters showed the apparently lifeless bodies of two children and a man in the rubble of a building at the site.
The presence of jihadists in northern Syria
Several extremist groups with links to al-Qaeda operate in northwestern Syria, the last major stronghold of the rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad in the war that broke out a decade ago.
For years, US forces have used drones to attack various radical groups in the area. However, the operation on February 3 would be the largest carried out by US forces in the northwest since the leader of the Islamic State, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was killed in a US special operation in 2019, he stressed. Charles Lister, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Middle East Institute.
Currently, the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group, the former Nusra Front, which was part of Al-Qaeda until 2016, is considered the most powerful extremist movement in the northwest of the country.
In addition, Islamic State fighters have re-emerged as a deadly threat and are hiding in the area.
In parallel, the Atmeh area is crammed with thousands of Syrian civilians who have been displaced by the war and live in makeshift camps or overcrowded housing.
With Reuters, AP and EFE
First modification:
US special forces carried out what the Pentagon called a large-scale “counter-terrorist attack” in northwestern Syria on Thursday, February 3. Rescuers on the ground reported that 13 people were killed, including six children and four women.
For more than two hours, a US military operation shook the Syrian town of Atmeh, near the border with Turkey. At least 13 people died, including six minors and four women.
Special forces under the direction of US Central Command landed in helicopters near an area littered with camps for people internally displaced by the civil war.
According to Syrian sources, the target was a jihadist linked to Al-Qaeda and “attacks and clashes” were reported at the scene.
“The mission was successful (…) There were no US casualties. More information will be provided as it becomes available,” Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said in a brief statement in which he did not detail the target of the attack.
However, the Syrian Civil Defense, known as the White Helmets, a rescue group operating in opposition-controlled areas of the country, confirmed the civilian deaths. The deaths were also corroborated by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The witness accounts
Several witnesses, cited by the US agency AP, said they saw helicopters, explosions and machine gun fire. Later, body parts were found scattered around the raid site, a two-story house in the rebel-held province of Idlib.
“This went on for 45 minutes. There was no answer. Then the machine gun fire broke out,” said Omar Saleh, one of the residents of the area, who added that the shooting continued for two hours, while the US planes flew over the area.
Other residents and activists described witnessing a large ground assault, with US forces using loudspeakers to urge women and children to leave the area.
Taher al-Omar, an Idlib-based activist, claimed he witnessed clashes between fighters and the US force.
Video taken by a resident and seen by Reuters showed the apparently lifeless bodies of two children and a man in the rubble of a building at the site.
The presence of jihadists in northern Syria
Several extremist groups with links to al-Qaeda operate in northwestern Syria, the last major stronghold of the rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad in the war that broke out a decade ago.
For years, US forces have used drones to attack various radical groups in the area. However, the operation on February 3 would be the largest carried out by US forces in the northwest since the leader of the Islamic State, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was killed in a US special operation in 2019, he stressed. Charles Lister, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Middle East Institute.
Currently, the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group, the former Nusra Front, which was part of Al-Qaeda until 2016, is considered the most powerful extremist movement in the northwest of the country.
In addition, Islamic State fighters have re-emerged as a deadly threat and are hiding in the area.
In parallel, the Atmeh area is crammed with thousands of Syrian civilians who have been displaced by the war and live in makeshift camps or overcrowded housing.
With Reuters, AP and EFE