At least 13 people were killed during the pre-dawn raid.
We’re covering the pre-dawn raid to kill an ISIS leader, and Russia’s response to the U.S. troop deployment. President Biden said on Thursday that the leader of the Islamic State died during a raid by U.S. Special Operations commandos in a predawn attack in northwest Syria. About two dozen American commandos carried out a helicopter-borne assault targeting Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, which began around midnight at a residential building in Atmeh, in Syria’s Idlib Province. Rescue workers said women and children were among at least 13 people killed during the raid. Biden said al-Qurayshi died when he exploded a bomb that killed him and members of his family. Biden added in a statement, “All Americans have returned safely from the operation.” Details: Two senior officials gave an initial account of the raid. Witnesses described the scene outside to The Times; photographs captured the aftermath. Al-Qurayshi: Little is known about the ISIS leader, who was 45 and born in Iraq. He lived off the grid, and left the building in Atmeh only occasionally to bathe on the roof. Context: The raid came days after a battle over a Syrian prison where ISIS fighters were held, the largest U.S. combat involvement with the Islamic State since the end of the caliphate three years ago. The Kremlin said on Thursday that the U.S. plan to send troops to Eastern Europe over concerns about Ukraine was intended to “stir up tensions.” The U.S. had announced the decision to send the 3,000 additional troops on Wednesday, saying that doing so would help defend NATO allies from the threat of Russian aggression. U.S. officials and satellite imagery indicated that Russia had not slowed its military buildup, adding more troops and military hardware over the past 24 hours near the Ukrainian border and in neighboring Belarus. But the Kremlin spokesman, Dmitri Peskov, accused the Americans of “igniting tensions on the European continent,” and described the U.S. deployment to Poland and Romania as a threatening act “in the vicinity of our borders.” Response: “These are not permanent moves — they are precisely in response to the current security environment in light of this increasing threatening behavior by the Russian Federation,” said Ned Price, the U.
