US official confirms a US operation targeted a senior leader of the Islamic State in northeastern Syria
The US forces announced that they had killed on Wednesday night, a senior leader of the Islamic State organization, during a landing operation in northeastern Syria.
The US military command in the Middle East (Centcom) confirmed in a statement that the operation targeted Rakan Wahid al Shammari.
The operation took place in the village of Molouk in the countryside of Qamishli, and it is one of the few villages under the control of regime-affiliated groups in al Hasakah Governorate, which is mostly controlled by Kurdish fighters and where the coalition forces are deployed.
This is the first time that US forces have carried out an operation in a village under the influence of the Syrian regime, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Hundreds of US military personnel are deployed as part of a US-led coalition against the jihadists and continue to fight with its allies from the Syria Democratic Forces against the sleeper cells of the Islamic State.
“US forces launched a helicopter raid on Wednesday evening near Qamishli targeting Rakan Wahid al Shammari, an official in the Islamic State who is known for facilitating weapons smuggling and the secret transportation of fighters,” Centcom said.
The US military added that “the targeted person was killed, one of his companions was wounded, and two others were arrested,” without specifying their nationalities.
According to the same source, no American soldiers were killed or injured, and no civilian casualties were recorded.
In Damascus, Syrian state television reported an operation carried out by the “American occupation forces” in which a person was killed, but no further details were provided.
The US forces and the international coalition forces led by Washington launch raids or airdrops from time to time against suspected members of the Islamic State.
A resident of the village of Molouk told AFP that three American helicopters participated in the operation from two in the morning until four in the morning, accompanied by three personnel carriers that were deployed on the outskirts of the village.
He added, “They called with loudspeakers for the people to stay in their homes, before they raided one of the houses”.
Since 2014, the international coalition in Iraq and Syria has been waging a campaign against the Islamic State, which culminated in March 2019 with the announcement by the US-backed Syria Democratic Forces, led by Kurdish fighters, to eliminate the “caliphate” after the end of the last battles against the organization in the border village of Baghouz with Iraq.
After the elimination of the “caliphate,” the organization’s fighters in Syria retreated mainly to the Syrian Desert, which extends between the governorates of Homs (central Syria) and Deir al Zour on the border with Iraq, and many are hiding in different villages and regions.
Since then, the international coalition has been pursuing the leaders of the organization and carrying out operations to arrest them, whether it is in Deir al Zour and al Hasakah in the east or in other areas in northern and northwestern Syria.
The US forces succeeded in arresting leaders in several operations, most notably the two leaders of the Islamic State, Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, were killed in October 2019 and Abu Ibrahim al Qurashi last February in their hideouts in Idlib Governorate (northwest of Syria).
In July, the United States announced that it had killed the leader of the Islamic State in Syria, Maher al Akal, in a strike carried out by an American drone, and the Central Command in the Pentagon described him as “one of the five most prominent leaders” of the extremist organization.
