President Biden watched in real time Wednesday as US commandos landed in Syria to raid a three-story home, surrounded by olive trees, where the top leader of ISIS was living with his wife and members of his family, according to administration officials.
From the head of the Situation Room table, Biden watched anxiously as an American helicopter suffered mechanical problems on the ground.
There was relief in the room when children emerged from the first floor of the building, running to safety.
Moments later, an explosion rocked the site: a suicide detonation that killed the terrorist, his wife and his children, blowing their bodies outside the building and onto the surrounding land.
Senior administration officials recounted the raid in detail on Thursday morning, describing an operation months in the making.
“We think the impact of (Al-Quarayshi) is going to be a blow to ISIS,” a senior administration official said, saying the terrorist ‘was heavily involved in running many of the operations.” Officials said he oversaw ISIS branches abroad — including the one in Afghanistan responsible for the deaths of American Marines last year — and played a key role in the genocide of the Yazidi ethnic minority.
At one point in December, top Pentagon officials brought a tabletop model of the location to the Situation Room to walk the President through their plans.
The target, Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, never left his compound. Living on the third floor with his family, he emerged only occasionally to bathe on the roof. Families with no connection to ISIS lived on the first floor, apparently without knowledge of the terrorist two stories above them.
It was months ago that the US learned the leader of ISIS was living there, running his terror operation through a network of couriers. When Biden was briefed by operational commanders in December, he ordered the Pentagon to take precautions to minimize civilian deaths — a difficult proposition for a target who appeared to intentionally surround himself with children and families as protection.
US forces who carried out the mission rehearsed the operation, including the safeguards to protect innocents. When the American team landed, they announced their presence loudly, asking those inside the building to leave and for others in the surrounding residential area to stay away.
Biden gave final approval of the operation on Tuesday in the Oval Office, where he was briefed by the Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
There was “tremendous tension” in the Situation Room a day later as the President, Vice President Kamala Harris, and members of Biden’s military and national security teams monitored the situation in “real time.”
Biden had been “very steeped in the operational details” after months of planning, a senior administration official said, which included the model of the building housing the top ISIS leader, brought by military leaders into the Situation Room in December. He engaged in a “constant give and take” with his military commanders.
Read more about how the events unfolded here.
