Updated 2000 IST
Amman – US administration has reported that the leader of the terrorist group ISIS died in a U.S. special forces raid in northern Syria on Thursday. He had detonated a bomb that killed him and family members.
Abu Ibrahim al-Hashemi al-Quraishi had led the group since the death of its founder Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who was also killed when he detonated explosives during a U.S. raid in 2019.
Pentagon had earlier reported that the U.S. Special Operations forces have successfully carried out a counter-terrorism mission in northwest Syria on Thursday. They confirmed the attack and said there were no U.S. casualties.
The raid was targeted at Al Qaeda-affiliated terrorists. Residents of the northwest Syrian town of Atmeh and rebels fighting the Syrian government earlier reported several civilian casualties in the two-hour operation as per reports.
Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby said in a statement, "U.S. Special Operations forces under the control of U.S. Central Command conducted a counter-terrorism mission this evening in northwest Syria. The mission was successful. There were no U.S. casualties."
Residents of Atmeh said the raid took place around midnight in a densely populated area near the border with Turkey, where tens of thousands of displaced Syrians live in makeshift camps or overcrowded housing.
There were no reports of any terrorists being killed, but residents said they heard heavy gunfire during the operation, indicating resistance to the raid.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group reported that nine people were killed in the town of Atmeh, including two children.
Residents who spoke to Reuters reported that the operation lasted more than two hours.
The operation is also reported to be the biggest since the Baghdadi raid (Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi died in a U.S. special operations raid in northwest Syria in 2019.)
The terrorist who was targeted was with his family at the time of the raid as reported.
The northwest of Syria - Idlib province and a belt of territory around it - is mostly held by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the former Nusra Front, which was part of al Qaeda until 2016.
The area is believed to be home to foreign terrorists linked to the al-Qaeda.
-Reuters/BBC