A doll lies among debris inside a house after a raid by US Special Operations Forces, Atmeh, Syria, February 3, 2022 (Mohamed Al-Daher)

UPDATE, FEB 4:

Pentagon officials say 10 civilians, including 8 children, were evacuated from the site where Islamic State leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi and other men, women, and children were killed during a US special forces operation.

The Pentagon said al-Qurayshi’s wife and two of his children were killed when he detonated an explosive device on the top floor of the three-story building.

Officials said al-Qurayshi’s deputy, who ran ISIS’s courier network, and his wife on the second floor were killed when they opened fire on the commandos. One of their children was slain, while four were evacuated.

White Helmets civil defense said one of the survivors was a young girl whose entire family was killed. They said she could not speak because of shock.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered commanders to review whether the mission had harmed civilians.

President Joe Biden said he had ordered a ground assault, rather than a drone strike, to limit civilian casualties: “We made a choice to pursue a special forces raid at a much greater risk than our — to our own people.”

A “senior Administration official” added that engineers modelled the building to conclude that it would not be collapsed if al-Qurayshi detonated an explosive.

A man in a neighboring said American commandos and an Arabic interpreter banged on their door just before the two-hour raid on al-Qureishi. The household was directed to hide behind another building.

Another neighbor said the US special forces, with about 20 commandos, did not attack al-Qureishi’s building immediately, but repeatedly called on occupants to come out peacefully. He said a voice on a loudspeaker pleaded with a woman and her children to leave: “Come out, woman, and let the children have a chance to live.”

The voice then became threatening, saying Americans would fire on the house if the woman did not come out.

the woman said she, her husband, her son, and at least two other children finally fled after a missile was fired at the house.

Her husband and son were captured and thrown to the ground. When she was told to put down her other children and remove her headscarf, she ran back inside the house. Finally, she came out at the urging of her husband and was searched and interrogated by the US forces about her relationship with neighbors including al-Qureishi.

UPDATE, 1430 GMT:

President Joe Biden has spoken to the nation about the killing of the Islamic State leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi.

Responding to reports of the deaths of at least 13 people, including 7 children and 3 women, in the US special forces operation, Biden declared that al-Qurayshi was responsible for the fatalities: “In a final, desperate act of cowardice, he blew himself up…rather than face justice for the crimes he has committed, taking several members of his family with him.”

In a marker of political significance, Biden praised the US-supported, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces at several points during the statement, pointing to an ongoing US military presence — in the guise of “counter-terrorism” — in northeast Syria. Operations will go beyond that zone, as in today’s case with the pursuit of al-Qurayshi in opposition-held northwest Syria.

UPDATE, 1200 GMT:

President Joe Biden has announced that the US special forces operation killed the leader of the Islamic State.

Biden will address the nation later today.

See also EA on Monocle 24: An Islamic State Resurgence in Syria and Iraq?

UPDATE, 1115 GMT:

An American official says that an Apache helicopter used in this morning’s raid had “mechanical issues” and was blown up on the ground by the US special forces.

UPDATE, 1100 GMT:

A report from the site of the US raid by a local journalist/activist:

ORIGINAL ENTRY: A raid by US special forces has reportedly killed at least 12 people, including seven children and three women, in northwest Syria near the Turkish border.

Residents and anti-Assad fighters spoke of an overnight operation on the village of Atmeh in Idlib Province, striking an area where tens of thousands of displaced Syrians live in camps or overcrowded housing. They said there was heavy gunfire and explosion, with several helicopters landing nearby.

After the assault of more than two hours, body parts scattered around a house in the village as reconnaissance aircraft flew overhead. Video showed a wounded child carried by rescuers amid concrete debris.

The Pentagon insisted the “mission was successful”; however, it gave no details of the target of the raid or of fatalities. Spokesman John Kirby said:

US Special Operations forces under the control of US Central Command conducted a counter-terrorism mission this evening in northwest Syria. There were no U.S. casualties. More information will be provided as it becomes available.

Reuters said the target is believed to have been a fighter suspected of affiliation with Al Qa’eda. A rebel official said he was believed to be at home with his family.

Analyst Charles Lister initially identified the target as Tauqir Sharif, a former British national who detained by the jihadist bloc Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham for three months in 2020. He later pulled back from the claim and speculated that the Americans were seeking a high-level Al Qa’eda official, possibly the faction’s envoy to Syria.

In the past two months, investigations by The New York Times have documented a series of US airstrikes killing civilians in Syria and Iraq, notably by a top secret unit called Task Force 9. In late August, a drone strike in the Afghan capital Kabul killed ten membeers of a family after the patriarch was wrongly identified as an Islamic State operative.

See also How US Military Covered Up Airstrikes Killing Civilians in Syria and Iraq
New Footage of US Drone Strike That Killed 10 Family Members in Afghanistan

Last week Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin issued a directive for commanders to strengthen efforts to prevent civilian deaths, and to improve the investigation and acknowledgement of civilian casualties.