President Joe Biden has announced that the leader of ISIS has been killed amid an overnight raid in northwestern Syria, in the province of Idlib.
As reported by NBC News, the POTUS revealed on Thursday that US special forces successfully killed Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, leader of the Islamic State terrorist group.
In a statement, President Biden said: "Last night at my direction, U.S. military forces successfully undertook a counterterrorism operation."
"Thanks to the bravery of our Armed Forces, we have removed from the battlefield Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi — the leader of ISIS," the statement continued.
Biden also confirmed that "all Americans have returned safely from the operation".
The president concluded his statement by announcing plans to deliver further comments about the raid later today.
Pentagon press secretary John Kirby also released a statement on the raid, in which he declared: "The mission was successful. There were no US casualties. More information will be provided as it becomes available."
NBC reports that a further 13 people were also said to have been killed in the raid, per local residents and first responders. A US administration official has since blamed any civilian casualties on an explosive used by militants. The raid is said to have lasted two hours, per Sky News.
Local residents have reported hearing helicopters and heavy gunfire from around midnight. US troops also used a loud speaker system to alert women and children to leave the area.
Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi succeeded former ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in October of 2019 after the latter was killed in a US raid earlier that month.
"While we are still assessing the results of this operation, this appears to be the same cowardly terrorist tactic we saw in the 2019 operation that eliminated al-Baghdadi," the US administration official added.
