U.S. military forces conducted a rare raid in northwestern Syria on Friday, killing a senior Islamic State leader and two other ISIS insurgents, the Pentagon’s Central Command said.
In a statement, Central Command said that U.S. forces killed the leader, Dhiya’ Zawba Muslih al-Hardani, and his two adult sons in the Aleppo area.
Central Command provided few details on the ground operation, but military counterterrorism raids — as opposed to airstrikes — have typically involved helicopter-borne Special Operations commandos, often supported by attack planes and drones.
Such ground operations are riskier than drone strikes because they put troops in harm’s way. They often mean that the target is particularly important and likely to be near civilians to try to ward off an air attack. And the location of the raid may contain sensitive information — like computer hard drives, cellphones and other data — that could help counterterrorism forces plan future raids.
“These ISIS individuals posed a threat to U.S. and coalition forces as well as the new Syrian government,” Central Command said in a statement, which noted that three women and three children who were at the location of the raid were unharmed.
A Pentagon official said on Friday that there were no American casualties in the mission.
The raid comes just weeks after President Trump signed an executive order in late June that lifted most of the U.S. economic sanctions on Syria, tightening his embrace of the country’s new government despite concerns about its leaders’ past ties to Al Qaeda.
The move, which ended decades of American policy toward Syria, delivered on a surprise announcement by Mr. Trump in May during a trip to the Middle East. At a stop in Saudi Arabia, Mr. Trump met with President Ahmed al-Shara of Syria, who assumed power in December after his fighters deposed the longtime dictator Bashar al-Assad.
Mr. Trump declared Mr. al-Shara, who previously led a rebel group designated by the U.S. government as a terrorist organization, “young, attractive” and “tough,” and said Syria deserved “a chance” to rebuild after a devastating civil war that began in March 2011.
Colin P. Clarke, a counterterrorism analyst at the Soufan Group, a security consulting firm based in New York, said in an email, “Publicizing the raid makes sense, as the U.S. may be eager to highlight the anti-ISIS fight, in partnership with Turkey and Syria, particularly the latter, in an effort to show the lengths Damascus is going to in order to make tangible changes and accede to U.S. demands.”
Gen. Michael E. Kurilla, who oversees U.S. military operations in the Middle East, said in the statement that “U.S. Central Command is committed to the enduring defeat of ISIS terrorists that threaten the region, our allies and our homeland.”