It isn’t but identified if the person focused could be ISIL’s supreme chief, Abu Hafs al-Hashimi al-Qurashi.
A US-led coalition has captured a senior member of the ISIL (ISIS) group in northwest Syria, the SANA state information company and a struggle monitor have reported, whereas one other Syrian safety supply and Syria’s state-owned Al-Ekhbariya mentioned the person focused was killed as he tried to flee.
It was not instantly clear on Tuesday if the person could be ISIL’s supreme chief. Two years in the past, ISIL introduced {that a} man referred to as Abu Hafs al-Hashimi al-Qurashi was named as its new chief after Turkish authorities killed his predecessor. The US navy didn’t reply to a request for remark by The Related Press information company.
The operation that included touchdown troops from helicopters occurred earlier than daybreak in Atmeh city close to the Turkish border, and an ISIL commander often known as Abu Hafs al-Qurashi, an Iraqi citizen, was taken away whereas one other Iraqi citizen was killed, in line with the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).
SOHR mentioned the person captured had a French-speaking lady with him, and it was not instantly clear if she was taken by the US forces or by Syrian safety forces who later cordoned off the realm.
Syrian state TV on Wednesday quoted an unnamed safety official as saying the Iraqi man focused within the operation is called Ali, including that his actual identify is Salah Noman. The report mentioned that Noman was dwelling in an house along with his spouse, son and mom. It mentioned he was killed within the raid. There was no rapid clarification in regards to the distinction in names reported by state media and the struggle monitor.
It was the second identified raid in northern Syria by US troops since longtime chief Bashar al-Assad was ousted in December. The federal government led by President Ahmed al-Sharaa, which changed him, has pledged to stop a resurgence of ISIL and is a part of an anti-ISIL alliance that features the US-led coalition combating the group.
In late July, the US Central Command (CENTCOM) mentioned its forces killed a senior ISIL chief and his two sons affiliated with the group in Syria’s Aleppo area, the US navy has mentioned. CENTCOM mentioned on the time that it “carried out a raid ensuing within the loss of life of senior ISIS Chief, Dhiya’ Zawba Muslih al-Hardani, and his two grownup ISIS-affiliated sons, Abdallah Dhiya al-Hardani and Abd al-Rahman Dhiya Zawba al-Hardani”.
In late Might, ISIL claimed duty for an assault on the Syrian military, representing the armed group’s first strike at authorities forces because the fall of al-Assad, in line with analysts.
In an announcement relating to that assault, ISIL mentioned its fighters had planted an explosive machine that struck a “car of the apostate regime” in southern Syria.
ISIL, which views the brand new authorities in Damascus led by al-Sharaa as illegitimate, has primarily concentrated its actions in opposition to Kurdish forces within the north.
At its peak, ISIL dominated an space half the dimensions of the UK, spanning throughout Iraq and Syria, with Raqqa within the latter being the capital of the armed group’s self-declared “caliphate”.
The group was infamous for its brutality, finishing up massacres of Syrians and Iraqis and beheading of international captives. ISIL’s massacres included these of 1000’s of the Yazidi folks and the group additionally enslaved 1000’s of Yazidi girls. The Yazidis, a long-persecuted group whose religion is rooted in Zoroastrianism, are nonetheless recovering from the horrors of ISIL’s onslaught on their neighborhood in Iraq’s Sinjar district in 2014.
ISIL was defeated in Iraq in 2017 and in Syria two years later, however its fighters and cadres of militants nonetheless perform lethal assaults in each nations and elsewhere, together with in Africa and Afghanistan.
A lethal assault on Mar Elias Church in Damascus in June killed at the least 25 folks, after a person with a rifle entered the church and shot at worshippers, earlier than detonating a suicide bomb.
The Syrian Inside Ministry blamed ISIL for the assault, although one other group referred to as Saraya Ansar al-Sunna later claimed it.
