Inside the midnight raid to kill an Isis leader

US operation to kill Isis leader comes just a week after a large-scale attack by the militant group that prompted fears of a resurgence

A building destroyed in the aftermath of a counter-terrorism mission conducted by the U.S. Special Operations Forces is seen in Atmeh, Syria (Mohamed Al-Daher/Handout via Reuters)

It began shortly after midnight. Residents of the Syrian town of Atmeh, just across the border from Turkey, were woken by the deafening buzz of helicopters close above them. The aircraft were carrying a team of US commandos who disembarked and surrounded a residential building. Through loudspeakers, the soldiers called in Arabic for the people inside to surrender.

Terrified and alone with her mother and sister, 22-year-old local resident Sima (not her real name) said they moved away from the windows as a precaution.

“We heard a voice from loudspeakers saying the woman and children should get out of the house that was being targeted. But we didn’t know which house was the target,” she told The Independent.

Thousands of miles away, in the White House situation room, the US president, Joe Biden, the vice-president, Kamala Harris, and top generals followed the operation closely. The raid to kill the leader of Isis, Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, had been months in the planning. Mr Biden had given the final order for the raid on Tuesday.

But just as soon as it began, the world’s most-wanted militant leader carried out the task himself, detonating a bomb that killed himself and his family, according to an account of the raid given by a senior US administration official. The blast threw bodies on to the street below, they added.

Live updates – Biden says Qurayshi killing is warning to terrorists

The US military had been watching the house where Qurayshi was killed for months. Atmeh is controlled by Syrian opposition forces dominated by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, formerly the Nusra Front, which was formerly linked to al-Qaeda. The previous leader of Isis, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was killed in a US-led operation just 10 miles from Atmeh in October 2019.

Officials said they knew Qurayshi had lived there with a lieutenant, that couriers came in and out of the building, and that he was still directly overseeing Isis activities across Iraq and Syria. A little over 10 days ago, Isis fighters launched a brazen attack on a prison in northeast Syria in an attempt to free fellow members of the group. The 20 January attack lasted for 10 days and saw dozens of Isis fighters engage with US forces and the Syrian Democratic Forces. It was the largest Isis attack since the collapse of the group’s caliphate almost three years ago, and sparked warnings of a resurgence.

As early as December, US intelligence had created a tabletop model of the building where they believed he was holed up, according to the senior administration official.

A civilian family was living on the first floor, while Qurayshi and his lieutenant – along with their families – lived on the second and third. It was due to this risk posed to the family that Mr Biden ordered an air assault operation, rather than an airstrike, the official said.

Anticipating that he would detonate explosives rather than be caught, engineers studied the structure to figure out if it would collapse in such an event.

“We had high confidence that the building would remain structurally sound,” the official told The Independent. “I doubt he knew that when he set off that detonation.”

Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi (US Department of State/AFP via Getty)

The Isis leader detonated what is believed to have been a powerful explosive belt early into the operation. Local rescue workers told The Independent that 13 people in total were killed, including six children and four women. US and Iraqi officials blamed the blast for the civilian deaths.

Initial accounts of military operations given by US officials are often inaccurate and later contradicted by evidence that emerges from sources on the ground.

The fighting did not end with the Isis leader’s death, however. Qurayshi’s “lieutenant” barricaded himself and his family in a room on the second floor and engaged with the US commandos.

Sima, who lives nearby, heard the battle from her home.

“We heard the sound of clashes and fighting. First, the aircraft, then the sound of shelling, then at 2am what sounded like machine guns from the helicopter,” she said.

During that battle, four children escaped from the room and were brought to safety, according to the senior administration official. The Isis lieutenant and wife were eventually killed, and the official added that “they may have had their children with them in that room”.

Towards the end of the two-hour mission, the senior official said one US helicopter was attacked by hostile forces on the ground, possibly Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which controls the area.

“They engaged one of our helicopters and we took action and killed at least two enemies in action,” the official said.

During the mission, one of the helicopters had a mechanical issue that forced it to ground. It was destroyed some distance from the site, the official added.

Following the raid, Sima said the building targeted by the operation was now almost completely destroyed.

“Most of the second floor is now missing; inside, there was a lot of destruction,” she said. Videos taken from the scene and shared online showed blood-smeared walls.

Mr Biden and Ms Harris watched the operation unfold for two hours in the situation room.

The US president announced the Isis leader’s death on Thursday morning, saying in a statement that US forces “successfully undertook a counterterrorism operation to protect the American people and our allies, and make the world a safer place”.