Red tape is extended and objects are set on fire, around the hous in which the leader of Islamic State group Amir Mohammed Said Abd al-Rahman al-Mawla died, during an overnight raid by US special forces, in the town of Atme in Syria's northwestern province of Idlib, on Feb 3, 2022. (ABDULAZIZ KETAZ / AFP)
AMMAN/WASHINGTON/UNITED NATIONS - UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday expressed concern over the civilian casualties in a US raid that led to the death of Islamic State leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Quraishi.
Asked for the secretary-general's comment on the US operation in Syria against al-Qurayshi, Farhan Haq, Guterres' deputy spokesman, said: "We've taken note of the announcement by the US president of the death of Abu Ibrahim al-Quraishi, the leader of Da'esh. We note with concern reports of civilian casualties."
Da'esh is the Arabic acronym of the IS terrorist group.
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"We continue to call on all the parties to take all necessary measures to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure in line with their obligations under international humanitarian law," said Haq.
Da'esh has committed heinous crimes and brought tragedy and death to thousands of men, women, and children. And we want to take this moment to remember the victims and families of victims of terrorism everywhere in the world.
Farhan Haq, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' deputy spokesman
In the case of trying to determine responsibility for casualties from attack, it would be important to have an investigation, he said.
"Da'esh has committed heinous crimes and brought tragedy and death to thousands of men, women, and children. And we want to take this moment to remember the victims and families of victims of terrorism everywhere in the world. And, of course, as you know, the UN system as a whole has been very united in efforts to act against Da'esh. So any successes against them are to be welcomed," he said.
THE OPERATION
The IS leader died when he blew himself and family members up during a US military raid in Syria, President Joe Biden said on Thursday, dealing a blow to the jihadist group's efforts to reorganize as a guerrilla force after losing large swathes of territory.
Abu Ibrahim al-Hashemi al-Quraishi, had led Islamic State since the death in 2019 of its founder Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who was also killed when he detonated explosives during a raid by US commandos.
As US forces closed in on Quraishi in northwestern Syria overnight, he triggered a blast that also killed members of his own family, including children, according to Biden and US officials.
The blast was so big it hurled bodies out of the three-storey building where Quraishi was and into surrounding streets in the town of Atmeh, US officials said, blaming Islamic State for all civilian casualties.
"Thanks to the bravery of our troops, this horrible terrorist leader is no more," Biden said in remarks at the White House.
A senior White House official said the blast was believed to have killed Quraishi, his two wives and a child on the third floor, and likely a child who was on the second floor with Quraishi's lieutenant and his wife, who were killed after firing on US forces. Two additional fighters were killed after firing on US helicopters, the official said.
Quraishi had been using the house and an unwitting family living on the first floor as a "protective shield," a factor that complicated planning for the raid, the official added.
The official was unable to explain the discrepancy between those numbers and those provided by Syrian rescue workers, who said at least 13 people were killed, including four women and six children.
"It's very clear from reviewing the operation in real time that the massive explosion on the third floor is what really caused the casualties," the official said.
Quraishi's death is another setback for Islamic State nearly three years after its self-declared caliphate was dismantled and its fighters defeated by US and Iraqi forces.
Since then, Islamic State, also known as ISIS, has waged insurgent attacks in Iraq and Syria. The most recent was last month when its gunmen stormed a prison in northeastern Syria housing Islamic State suspects.
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Quraishi, a 45-year-old Iraqi, had remained largely in the shadows since succeeding Baghdadi who led the group when it launched a lightning expansion in 2014 that shocked the world. He was injured and lost a leg in a 2015 US air strike, the US official said. ISIS took control of large areas of Syria and Iraq, imposing strict Islamic rule over millions and inspiring attacks in the West.
President Joe Biden speaks about a counterterrorism raid carried out by US special forces that killed top Islamic State leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Quraishi in northwestern Syria on Feb 3, 2022, in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington. (PATRICK SEMANSKY / AP)
Biden and US officials described Quraishi as the "driving force" behind the 2014 genocide of minority Yazidis in northern Iraq, and said he oversaw a network of Islamic State branches from Africa to Afghanistan.
"Last night's operation took a major terrorist leader off the battlefield and has sent a strong message to terrorist around the world: We will come after you and find you," Biden said.
US officials have been in touch with all partners in the counter-ISIS coalition since the operation, and all were resolved to continue fighting ISIS and the threat the group posed to their countries, the White House official said.
The killing of Quraishi, also known as Haji Abdullah, helps restore some of the Biden administration's foreign policy credentials after it was widely criticized for last year's chaotic withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan.
US officials expect ISIS to replace the dead leader.
Residents in Atmeh, near the Syrian-Turkish border, said helicopters landed and heavy gunfire and explosions were heard during the raid that began around midnight. US forces used loudspeakers to warn women and children to leave the area, they said.
This image from video provided by the Department of Defense and released on Feb 3, 2022, shows the compound after a raid where Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Quraishi, leader of the Islamic State Group, died in Syria's northwestern Idlib province. (DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE VIA AP)
The Pentagon said 10 people were evacuated from the raid area, including children. General Frank McKenzie, head of US Central Command, told the Washington-based Middle East Institute that all of them were "mobile and safe" and left at the scene when US forces departed.
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US military procedures to guard against civilian casualties are under scrutiny following a high-profile mistaken drone strike in Afghanistan that the Pentagon initially hailed a success.
Bodies in the rubble
A video taken by a resident and seen by Reuters showed the bodies of two apparently lifeless children and a man in the rubble of a building at the location.
Other footage showed rescue workers loading what appeared to be a small body wrapped in a white plastic sheet into an ambulance. Other body bags were in the back of the vehicle.
Using head torches, the workers looked for remains through chunks of concrete, children's toys and women's clothing in the wreckage. A kitchen was blackened and burned, windows hung from their frames and plastic utensils were half melted.
Reuters could not independently verify the images.
A Syrian man who witnessed the raid said he left his house after midnight and saw aircraft in the sky.
"Ten minutes later we heard screams. 'Surrender, the house is surrounded,'" he said. "There was shelling from airplanes and machine guns."
Another witness said he saw several bodies at the scene. "There was blood everywhere," he told Reuters. He said one US helicopter appeared to suffer a mechanical failure and was blown up by the US forces.
Local leaders, security officials and residents in northern Iraq say Islamic State has been re-emerging as a deadly threat, aided by a lack of central control in many areas.
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Quraishi was hiding out in a region of Syria that is home to several militant groups including an al Qaeda-affiliated faction whose leaders include foreign fighters.
In this image provided by the Department of Defense, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley (second from right) observe the US raid in Syria against Islamic State group leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Quraishi, from the National Military Command Center in the Pentagon in Washington, on Feb 2, 2022. (LISA FERDINANDO / DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE VIA AP)
US forces have for years used drones to target jihadists in the area, but Thursday's operation appeared to be the largest by US forces in the northwest since the raid that killed al-Baghdadi, said Charles Lister, senior fellow with the Washington-based Middle East Institute.
Beyond Quraishi, who was once held in US custody, little is known of the group's top levels - partly because it now operates in a secretive structure of autonomous local cells, rather than the centralised administration of the 'caliphate'.
The US-led coalition fighting Islamic State said in mid-2019, after the group's battlefield defeat, that it retained 14,000 to 18,000 members, including 3,000 foreigners, though precise numbers are as elusive as the group itself.
Analysts say many local fighters may have slipped back into normal life, ready to re-emerge when the opportunity emerges.
