Early Monday morning, United States special forces, suspected to be Delta Force backed by the 160th SOAR, carried out a raid on the village of As Suwayda in the Jarabulus countryside. The area is under control by Turkish-backed rebel groups.
CONFIRMED: US Special Operations Forces believed they killed a “very senior ISIS leader responsible for planning terror attacks in the Middle East and Europe” during a helicopter-borne raid in northwest #Syria tonight, a US official tells me.
— Jared Szuba (@JM_Szuba) April 17, 2023
Pentagon correspondent for Al Monitor, Jared Szuba, reported that the operation killed a “very senior ISIS leader responsible for planning terror attacks in the Middle East and Europe,” citing an unnamed American official. He also reported that two other combatants were killed, but did not confirm if they were ISIS militants or not.
Meanwhile, local sources have reported that the raid targeted a compound of the Suqour al-Sham Brigades, which is part of the Turkish-backed National Liberation Front. The group has a history of being aligned with Ahrar al-Sham. It was also reported by local sources that two Suqour al-Sham fighters were killed, but this remains unconfirmed.
Despite earlier unconfirmed reports, there were no American casualties
