{O/C} {Good evening} We begin tonight in northwest Syria, where a barrage of U.S. attacks killed the leader of the Islamic State terrorist group.
Reports say at least 13 people, including six children, are among the casualties.
The United States this time resorted to a framed strike, riskier for U.S. troops but safer for the innocent.
This, as President Joe Biden praised the troops for their bravery, as no American troops perished in the raid.
{SOT}
The overnight raid saw dozens of U.S. commandoes land outside Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi's hideout and warn people to stay inside as they prepared to move in for the kill with a vengeance.
Families residing in the same building in Atmeh, a densely populated town in northwest Syria where the leader of ISIS has been hiding out were led to safety.
Families living nearby were awoken in the dead of the night. Residents said helicopters were hovering over that building for more than two hours as commandoes pondered their move.
The U.S. special forces then made a framed attack by surrounding the targeted building and using loudspeakers to call on residents inside to flee.
Unfortunately, the U.S. raid culminated in the deaths of women and children. ISIS' leader, his wife and two children died as he detonated a suicide bomb and blew himself up. An act U.S. President Joe Biden portrayed as cowardly.
{Soundbite} JOE BIDEN, U.S. President: As our troops approached to capture the terrorist, in a final act of desperate cowardice, he, with no regard to the lives of his own family or others in the building, chose to blow himself up.
A lieutenant of the military leader and that man's wife also died along with a child after the pair attempted to fire upon U.S. forces.
Having been watching closely alongside Vice President Kamala Harris at the Pentagon, Biden said he directed the military to err on the side of caution so as to ameliorate the pernicious effect this raid had on civilians.
{Soundbite} Knowing that this terrorist had chosen to surround himself with families, including children, we made a choice to pursue a special forces raid at a much greater risk to our own people rather than target him with an airstrike. We made this choise to minimise civilian casualties.
The leader of the Islamic State terrorist organisation was privy to plans to commit some of the world's most horrific atrocities and was a top ideologue of the extremist movement, which had been given full play in Iraq, where thousands of women used to be held in bondage.
He has been hiding out in Syria ever since his predecessor met his demise in a similar raid back in 2019. He led the group's remnants to wage an insurgency in Iraq and Syria in order to have dominion over people in those countries.
He never broke cover as he has been staying in Idlib province, one of the last places where rebels still have a toehold in.
In the aftermath of yesterday's audacious raid, it was a bloody scene and a sorry sight in the dead ISIS leader's hiding place. A stuffed bunny, a crib and the paraphernalia of violence.
Biden no longer has to get contending with terror threats off his chest, now that the death of ISIS' leader is the icing on the cake. He commended U.S. troops for their courage.
{Soundbite} And thanks to the bravery of our troops, this horrible terrorist leader is no more.
Biden pointed the finger at al-Qurayshi, saying he was directly linked to last month's prison strike in Syria.
The U.S. has refrained from airstrikes as it acknowledged that airstrikes, like those in Afghanistan last year, make civilian deaths all but ineluctable.
Comments