Washington — President Biden is planning to address the nation Thursday morning about a raid by U.S. special operations forces that led to the death of the leader of ISIS in Syria, as well as an unknown number of civilian casualties.
A senior administration official said the target of the operation, Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, detonated an explosive that killed himself and members of his family at the beginning of the raid in northwestern Syria.
“At the beginning of the operation the terrorist target exploded a bomb that killed him and members of his own family, including women and children,” the senior administration official said. “While we are still assessing the results of this operation, this appears to be the same cowardly terrorist tactic we saw in the 2019 operation that eliminated al-Baghdadi.”
Ghaith Alsayed/AP
The commander in chief will speak at 9:30 a.m. ET to share more details about the operation. Mr. Biden said in a statement Thursday morning that the ISIS leader has been “taken 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,” the president said. “Thanks to the skill and bravery of our Armed Forces, we have taken off the battlefield Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi — the leader of ISIS.”
Residents and outside monitoring groups reported a number of deaths, including women and children.
The president said all American forces involved in the raid “have returned safely from the operation.” The White House released a photo of Mr. Biden and his national security team monitoring the operation from the White House Situation Room:
Al-Qurayshi was named the leader of ISIS after the terrorist group’s former leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was killed in a 2019 raid by U.S. forces in Syria.
