On Thursday, the President of the United States of America said that the US has eliminated a major threat from the world after successfully removing the leader of the Islamic State, Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi. The ISIS leader managed to blow himself up along with his family during the raid in Syria.
Biden in a statement mentioned that as the troops were approaching, Qurayshi blew himself, up in a final act of cowardice, from the third floor of a house located in Syria killing himself and the members of his family. President Biden called him “Haji Abdullah” as he believes Qurayshi had been responsible for a massive prison strike that took place last month and also called him the driving force between the genocide of the Yazidi people, in his statement on Thursday.
President stated that the forces of the United States of America carried out the operation with their signature preparation and with precision. Biden said that he directed the Department of Defence to take every precaution possible to avoid casualties of civilian people.
Biden further mentioned that knowing the terrorist had chosen to surround himself with members of his family including children, the forces chose to go ahead with special forces which was a greater risk to the people doing the raid rather than targeting the ISIS leader with an airstrike. Biden added that this choice was made to minimise any civilian fatalities.
As the special forces troops approached Qurayshi, he detonated a bomb blowing himself and his family up, and he did it not just with the suicide vest but he blew with the entire third floor of the house. Instead of facing justice for all the crimes Qurayshi had committed, he took several of his family members with him, in the same way as his predecessor did. By predecessor, Biden meant Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi who got killed in October 2019 in a village situated nine miles south of Atme in the jihadist-controlled Idlib area, when Wednesday’s overnight raid was held.
As per a Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a total of 13 people were killed including women and children. Unicef has confirmed the death of six children in the raid. In his statement, President Biden said thanks to the bravery of their soldiers, because of which the horrible terrorist is no more amongst us. He thanked the special forces of the United States, the Democratic Forces of Syria for their essential support, and the Department of Defence along with the members of the national security team.
Biden said that the raid that took place last night has sent a strong message to all the terrorists around the world. He said that they will continue their unceasing efforts to keep the people of America safe and the strength and security of their allies and partners around the world. He also added that the government of the US was in process of compiling the official report on the raid.