US special operations forces conducted a large-scale counterterrorism raid in northwestern Syria overnight yesterday, in what the Pentagon said was a “successful mission.”
“The mission was successful,” US Department of Defense spokesman John Kirby said in a brief statement. “There were no US casualties. More information will be provided as it becomes available.”
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the strike killed nine people, including two children and a woman.
Photo: AFP
Ahmad Rahhal, a citizen journalist who visited the site in Idlib Province, reported seeing 12 bodies. Others were reportedly still under the rubble.
The raid was in Syria’s rebel-held northwestern province of Idlib. The Pentagon provided no details on who was the target of the raid, or if any enemies or civilians on the ground were killed or injured. Idlib is home to several top al-Qaeda operatives.
Residents and activists in the area described seeing a large ground assault, and US forces using loudspeakers asking women and children to leave the area.
There was at least one major explosion. A US official said that one of the helicopters in the raid suffered a mechanical problem and had to be blown up on the ground. The US official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details of the military operation.
The observatory, an opposition war monitor, said troops for the US-led coalition using helicopters landed in the area and attacked a house. It said the force clashed with fighters on the ground. Taher al-Omar, an Idlib-based activist, also said that clashes between the fighters in the area broke out with the US force.
The military operation got attention on social media, with tweets from the region describing helicopters firing around a building near Atmeh. Flight-tracking data also suggested that multiple drones were circling the city of Sarmada and the village of Salwah.
The clandestine operation came as the Islamic State group was appearing to try to stage a comeback after its effort to establish a caliphate failed in 2019, following several years of fighting in Syria and Iraq. The group has in the past few months launched a series of attacks in the region, including a 10-day assault late last month to seize a prison in northeastern Syria.
A US-backed Kurdish-led force on Monday said that the Gweiran prison, also known as al-Sinaa prison, is now fully under its control.
The Syrian Democratic Forces said more than 120 of their fighters and prison workers died in the effort to thwart the Islamic State plot.
The prison houses at least 3,000 Islamic State group detainees.
The attempted prison break was the biggest military operation by the extremist group since it was defeated and members scattered to havens in 2019.
The US-led coalition carried out airstrikes and deployed US personnel in Bradley Fighting Vehicles to the prison area to help the Kurdish forces.
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