Four children among those killed in US operation in Syria: human rights monitor

Alannah Travers

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Thirteen people were killed in an overnight raid by US special operations forces targeting suspected jihadists in northwest Syria, the head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) told Rudaw English on Thursday, with four children among the dead.

The operation took place near Atmeh in the early hours of Thursday morning, close to the Syrian border with Iskenderun, and is believed to have targeted a suspected al Qaeda-affiliated jihadist.

In an earlier statement, SOHR reported that reliable sources had confirmed Coalition helicopters targeting areas between Idlib and Aleppo province, near Deir Ballut village. 

“We now know that thirteen people were killed in the operation,” Rami Abdel Rahman, head of SOHR, explained.

"Ten of the dead were civilians," he said, with four children and three women confirmed among these dead.

The Syria Civil Defence unit the White Helmets provided humanitarian assistance at the scene, and shared images of the destruction on Thursday.

It has been so far impossible to ascertain the identity of the three further civilian bodies, the head of the human rights monitoring group told Rudaw English, as only their remains are left.

The other three who were killed, Rahman said, were presumably the targets of the US operation, although he stressed that the outcome of the attack last night is still to be confirmed. One man, he stressed, was "a fighter." Gory images published by AFP on Thursday depict blood-soaked floors and walls, with sections collapsed, and a party collapsed roof.

Following the raid, the Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby said that the counterterrorism mission in northwest Syria "was successful." US President Joe Biden is expected to make a further statement in the coming hours about the operation. 

The rebel-held northwestern province of Idlib is home to several top al-Qaeda operatives and other militant groups including Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) which controls Deir Ballut, and was part of al-Qaeda until 2016.

In a longer statement, SOHR reported that reliable sources had confirmed the death of 13, "killed in an airdrop and air attacks by the Coalition forces and aircraft near Atamah region at Iskenderun border in the north countryside of Idlib province."

"The number of deaths is expected to rise because there is information about other dead people and also some of the wounded people have sustained severe injuries," it added.

According to SOHR's sources, the attack targeted a two-storey building. "It has not been confirmed yet whether or not the children and the woman were belonging to the targeted families," it concluded.

The area is similar to the location where former leader of the Islamic State (ISIS) Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was assassinated in 2019. After the operation, Charles Lister, a senior fellow with the Washington-based Middle East Institute, commented that, "Nothing of this scale has happened since Baghdadi was killed."

Atmeh is also home to a vast camp for families displaced by the decade-long Syrian conflict. Experts have warned that the area was being used by jihadists as a place to hide among civilians.

Updated at 12:38pm