President Biden confirms ISIS leader killed in overnight Idlib operation

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The leader of Islamic State (ISIS) Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi was killed by US special operations forces in an overnight raid in the early hours of Thursday in northwest Syria, President Joe Biden has confirmed.

“Last night at my direction, U.S. military forces successfully undertook a counterterrorism operation. Thanks to the bravery of our Armed Forces, we have removed from the battlefield Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi - the leader of ISIS,” President Biden said in a statement on Thursday.

The killing of the ISIS leader took place on a property in Atmeh, north of Idlib and just to the east of the border with Turkey.

The death of Qurayshi comes three years after US special forces killed former ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in a similar-style attack in 2019 in Idlib. 

On top of Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, the attack left twelve others dead, including four children and three women, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) told Rudaw English on Thursday.

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has raised the death toll of children higher, "confirming" that "at least six children were killed and one girl was badly injured overnight."

A senior White House official told AFP that Qurayshi detonated a bomb during the raid on the house, which led to the deaths of family members, including children. This was confirmed by the President in a televised address later on Thursday, delivered shortly after 10am EST.

"As our troops approached to capture the terrorist, in a final act of desperate cowardice, with no regard to the lives of his own family or others in the building, he chose to blow himself up," Biden told reporters in the White House.

Following the operation, the US Defense Department said it was a "successful" mission, with no US casualties. Reports from the ground and footage shared on social media showed what appeared to be the wreckage of a US helicopter, which was subsequently destroyed by US forces.

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.

The operation comes almost two weeks after ISIS militants launched a daring prison break in Hasaka, northeast Syria (Rojava). 

This piece has been updated.