President Joe Biden extolled the U.S. military after Islamic State commander Abu Ibrahim al Hashimi al Qurayshi was eliminated during an early morning special operations raid in northwest Syria.
Biden described Qurayshi as a “major terrorist threat to the world,” pledging that his administration would remain vigilant and prepared to “come after” other such leaders.
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“This operation is testament to America’s reach and capability to take out terrorist threats no matter where they try to hide,” he said at the White House.
Senior administration officials told reporters Qurayshi, a 45-year-old Iraqi, “exploded a bomb that killed him and members of his own family, including women and children” during the U.S. Central Command-led mission conducted in the Syrian-Turkish border town of Atmeh. No American was hurt, but Syrian first responders report at least 13 people died in the incident.
Biden, who watched events unfold in real time from the Situation Room, said he directed the Pentagon to “take every precaution possible to minimize civilian casualties” after he was informed of Qurayshi’s location last year. In the end, he declined to order an airstrike when he approved the attack this week during an Oval Office meeting with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley.
Qurayshi, a former al Qaeda fighter in Iraq, replaced Abu Bakr al Baghdadi atop the terror group in 2019 after al Baghdadi similarly detonated an explosive device as U.S. troops closed in on him in nearby Idlib.
Biden confirmed the raid in a statement earlier Thursday, praising the skill and bravery of U.S. personnel for taking Qurayshi “off the battlefield.”
“Last night at my direction, U.S. military forces in northwest Syria successfully undertook a counterterrorism operation to protect the American people and our allies, and make the world a safer place,” he said.
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CENTCOM has recently targeted other terrorists in the region, including killing a senior al Qaeda “leader and planner” on Dec. 3.
