special forces of U.S flew by helicopter to a region in northwestern Syria this Thursday in an operation to capture jihadists that left 13 dead, including seven civilians, indicated an NGO.
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The military landed by helicopter near camps for displaced people in the city of Atme, in the Idlib region, largely controlled by jihadist and rebel groups, the report said. Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH), which has a wide network of sources in Syria, a country devastated by the war.
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“US special forces under the direction of US Central Command (which manages operations in the region) conducted an overnight counter-terrorism mission in northwestern Syria,” the Pentagon said in a statement.
“The mission was a success. There were no casualties among US forces,” the statement added. This is the largest operation by US forces in Syria since the death in October 2019 of Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi, leader of the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group, explained the director of the SOHR, Rami Abdel Rahman.
The Idlib region is outside the control of the Syrian government. There were clashes that lasted two hours, the OSDH added, without being able to specify the identity of the wanted jihadists.
“At least 13 people, including four children and three women, were killed in the operation,” said Abdel Rahman. According to journalists from the AFP at the scene, the US operation targeted a two-story building in an area surrounded by trees. Part of the building was destroyed and traces of blood were visible.
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bombing and shooting
Residents in the area told AFP they heard shelling and gunshots. In an audio recording circulating among the population and attributed to the coalition, a person speaking in Arabic asks the women and children to evacuate the houses in the attacked area.
Experts say the overcrowded camps in the Atme area in northern Idlib province are being used as a base by jihadist leaders hiding among the displaced.
Parts of Idlib province and the neighboring provinces of Hama, Aleppo and Latakia are dominated by Hayat Tahrir Al Sham (HTS, Organization for the Liberation of the Levant), a former Syrian branch of Al Qaeda.
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The province is also home to rebel groups and other jihadist formations, such as the Hurras Al Din (Guardians of Religion) group. All these factions have already been subjected to airstrikes mainly by the Syrian government, by Russia, its main ally, but also by the US-led international anti-jihadist coalition and US special forces.
But helicopter operations remain extremely rare in Syria, where US troops are deployed as part of the anti-jihadist coalition. The complex war in Syria, a fragmented country in which different protagonists intervene, has left some 500,000 dead since 2011.
AFP
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