SYRIA (Washington Insider Magazine) – According to the US-led anti-ISIS coalition, a top ISIS leader was captured in an unusual US military ground operation in northwestern Syria.
There were no injuries to US military soldiers and no harm to the aircraft engaged in the operation, according to a US defense official.
According to ABC News, the ISIS leader detained in the raid is Hani Ahmed al-Kurdi, who is actively coordinating ISIS operations, according to a US official.
“Though degraded, ISIS remains a threat. We remain dedicated to its defeat. In a statement to ABC News, Gen. Erik Kurilla, the head of US Central Command, stated, “Last night’s operation, which took a senior ISIS operator off the battlefield, demonstrates our commitment to the security of the Middle East and to the enduring defeat of ISIS.”
Ground raids by the US military in northern Syria are dangerous since they are taken out far west from US bases in eastern Syria, in territories held by either Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime or extremists.
Top ISIS commanders have been targeted by US military ground attacks in northwestern Syria, most significantly Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who committed suicide during an elite Delta Force raid near the Turkish border in October 2019.
During a similar attack in February of this year, his replacement, Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, detonated himself with an explosive.
The terror organization was defeated militarily in Syria in 2019, and its commanders have since gone into hiding to avoid being attacked by US forces.
ISIS forces, on the other hand, maintain a low level resistance in Syria and Iraq, while the group seeks to encourage Western supporters to carry out violent assaults.
Hundreds of ISIS members attempted to release thousands of terrorist militants incarcerated at a prison in Hasakah, northeast Syria, in January, in their greatest operation since their military loss.
After ten days of fierce battle, US-backed Syrian Kurdish troops, aided by US bombings, were able to reclaim the prison, though hundreds of ISIS detainees are reported to have escaped.
During the attempted prison break, 374 ISIS members were killed, according to Kurdish forces.
