The Fort Worth Press - 'Incredibly complex': the raid that killed IS chief

USD -
AED 3.672983
AFN 68.112673
ALL 94.198378
AMD 389.366092
ANG 1.801814
AOA 913.000342
ARS 1002.373762
AUD 1.535425
AWG 1.8025
AZN 1.702735
BAM 1.877057
BBD 2.018523
BDT 119.468305
BGN 1.87679
BHD 0.376794
BIF 2953.116752
BMD 1
BND 1.347473
BOB 6.908201
BRL 5.800986
BSD 0.99976
BTN 84.384759
BWP 13.658045
BYN 3.27175
BYR 19600
BZD 2.015164
CAD 1.39773
CDF 2871.000206
CHF 0.893259
CLF 0.035441
CLP 977.925332
CNY 7.242966
CNH 7.255695
COP 4389.749988
CRC 509.237487
CUC 1
CUP 26.5
CVE 105.825615
CZK 24.28895
DJF 178.031575
DKK 7.158303
DOP 60.252411
DZD 134.221412
EGP 49.58284
ERN 15
ETB 122.388982
EUR 0.95985
FJD 2.27595
FKP 0.789317
GBP 0.797766
GEL 2.73993
GGP 0.789317
GHS 15.795384
GIP 0.789317
GMD 70.999977
GNF 8617.496041
GTQ 7.717261
GYD 209.15591
HKD 7.784201
HNL 25.264168
HRK 7.133259
HTG 131.234704
HUF 394.421502
IDR 15943.55
ILS 3.70177
IMP 0.789317
INR 84.43625
IQD 1309.659773
IRR 42074.999774
ISK 139.680283
JEP 0.789317
JMD 159.268679
JOD 0.709102
JPY 154.770141
KES 129.468784
KGS 86.500646
KHR 4025.145161
KMF 472.503525
KPW 899.999621
KRW 1404.509773
KWD 0.30785
KYD 0.833149
KZT 499.179423
LAK 21959.786938
LBP 89526.368828
LKR 290.973655
LRD 180.450118
LSL 18.040693
LTL 2.95274
LVL 0.60489
LYD 4.882192
MAD 10.057392
MDL 18.23504
MGA 4666.25078
MKD 59.052738
MMK 3247.960992
MNT 3397.999946
MOP 8.015644
MRU 39.77926
MUR 46.850206
MVR 15.459571
MWK 1733.576467
MXN 20.44549
MYR 4.468031
MZN 63.909924
NAD 18.040693
NGN 1696.699662
NIO 36.786794
NOK 11.077505
NPR 135.016076
NZD 1.714076
OMR 0.384846
PAB 0.99976
PEN 3.790969
PGK 4.025145
PHP 58.938964
PKR 277.626662
PLN 4.158919
PYG 7804.59715
QAR 3.646048
RON 4.78029
RSD 112.294256
RUB 104.167286
RWF 1364.748788
SAR 3.754429
SBD 8.383555
SCR 13.698973
SDG 601.496859
SEK 11.03372
SGD 1.346598
SHP 0.789317
SLE 22.729751
SLL 20969.504736
SOS 571.332598
SRD 35.494034
STD 20697.981008
SVC 8.748021
SYP 2512.529858
SZL 18.034455
THB 34.592502
TJS 10.647152
TMT 3.5
TND 3.17616
TOP 2.342096
TRY 34.514978
TTD 6.790153
TWD 32.583495
TZS 2659.340659
UAH 41.35995
UGX 3694.035222
UYU 42.516436
UZS 12825.951341
VES 46.55914
VND 25419
VUV 118.722009
WST 2.791591
XAF 629.547483
XAG 0.031938
XAU 0.000369
XCD 2.70255
XDR 0.760497
XOF 629.547483
XPF 114.458467
YER 249.92504
ZAR 18.08816
ZMK 9001.202175
ZMW 27.617448
ZWL 321.999592
  • SCS

    0.2300

    13.27

    +1.73%

  • RELX

    0.9900

    46.75

    +2.12%

  • RBGPF

    59.2400

    59.24

    +100%

  • BCC

    3.4200

    143.78

    +2.38%

  • RYCEF

    -0.0100

    6.79

    -0.15%

  • BCE

    0.0900

    26.77

    +0.34%

  • NGG

    1.0296

    63.11

    +1.63%

  • CMSC

    0.0320

    24.672

    +0.13%

  • RIO

    -0.2200

    62.35

    -0.35%

  • CMSD

    0.0150

    24.46

    +0.06%

  • GSK

    0.2600

    33.96

    +0.77%

  • JRI

    -0.0200

    13.21

    -0.15%

  • AZN

    1.3700

    65.63

    +2.09%

  • VOD

    0.1323

    8.73

    +1.52%

  • BP

    0.2000

    29.72

    +0.67%

  • BTI

    0.4000

    37.38

    +1.07%

'Incredibly complex': the raid that killed IS chief
'Incredibly complex': the raid that killed IS chief

'Incredibly complex': the raid that killed IS chief

By early December, US intelligence was certain of it: the man occupying the top floor of a nondescript house in Atme, northern Syria -- who never left the premises, emerging only to bathe on the roof -- was the head of the Islamic State group.

Text size:

In the White House Situation room, a table-top model of the house was set up, and President Joe Biden was briefed on his options to neutralize Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi, one of America's most wanted jihadist targets.

US officials say they could have easily killed Qurashi -- whose location they had narrowed down last year before pinpointing it -- with a precision missile.

Biden chose a riskier course, said a senior US official briefing reporters on the raid, to reduce the possibility of killing the civilians also living in the three-level cinderblock home, set amid olive trees near the border with Turkey.

The Special Operations Forces assault launched in the early hours of Thursday was "incredibly complex," the official said, given the number of nearby homes and the presence of women and multiple children in the building.

In the end, as elite US troops surrounded the house calling for all inside to come out, Qurashi blew himself up along with his wife and two children -- an outcome US forces had prepared for but hoped against.

The operation had been rehearsed in detail several times, the official said.

Special forces trained for everything from a surrender to a firefight. One possibility was that Qurashi would blow himself up.

"One of our main concerns was that he would kill himself and the structure would collapse killing everyone else in the building," said a senior military official.

The official said the operation team consulted engineers on the strength of the concrete building. They concluded with "high confidence" that an explosion would only destroy the top floor.

The hideout's location in Idlib province was just 15 kilometers (nine miles) north of where Qurashi's IS predecessor, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, likewise killed himself in October 2019 to avoid capture in a US commando raid.

The United States had placed a $10 million reward on Qurashi's head soon after he took over at the helm of IS.

At the beginning of this week Biden was briefed on the situation, and gave the operational go-ahead Tuesday morning at the White House.

- Questions on civilian deaths -

The operation went almost all according to plan.

As Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and other officials monitored in real time in the Situation Room, helicopters flew in US commandos, reportedly about two dozen, who surrounded the building and warned neighbors to stay away.

The team called on everyone to exit the building, and a couple and their children living on the first level emerged and were taken to safety, the senior official explained.

Moments later, the top floor erupted with an explosion, tearing off half of the structure, but leaving the level below intact.

US forces began moving in, but a couple on the second floor barricaded themselves in their residence and began firing on them.

"The ISIS lieutenant and his wife were killed," the official said, without offering details, adding that four children had emerged to be taken to safety.

After the raid open questions remained about how many people actually died.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said seven civilians were among at least 13 people killed in the operation, four of them children.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said at least three civilians died -- Qurashi's wife and their two children.

The US military official meanwhile said eight children and two adults were saved. But the official allowed that it was not clear how many children were on the top floor when it exploded, and that a couple on the floor below may have had more children with them.

In operational terms, officials said, the only mishap was that one of the helicopters that delivered the commandos to the location developed mechanical problems and landed in a nearby field, where it was destroyed.

That echoed the 2011 raid on the Pakistan compound of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, where a Special Operations helicopter crash-landed and also had to be destroyed, due to sensitive technology it carried.

In addition, unknown local gunmen began firing on the US troops late in the operation, and US troops fired back. The official said at least two of them were killed, with no Americans injured.

L.Coleman--TFWP