“Anti-terror mission” in Syria
US-led troops kill civilians
2/3/2022 6:47 am
It is said to have been “the largest operation of this kind since the operation against Bagdadi”: In northern Syria, there is a battle lasting several hours with special forces from the US army. A number of civilians are apparently killed. “The mission was successful,” the Pentagon says.
According to eyewitness reports, US-led forces attacked the home of a suspected member of the Islamist organization al-Qaeda in Syria. Several helicopters landed near the city of Atmeh in the Syrian rebel province of Idlib and explosions were heard near the home of a foreign Islamist, residents of the city and insiders of the rebels fighting the Syrian government told Reuters.
A local resident reported that rescue workers recovered at least 12 bodies, including women and children, from the rubble of a multi-storey building. There was no confirmation that Islamists were killed in the attack.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights assumes that the target of the attack is somewhat different. She reports that 13 civilians have been killed in heavy fighting in the northwest between the US-led coalition and the Islamic (IS) terrorist militia. Among them are four children.
The US Department of Defense only confirmed an anti-terrorist mission with US Army special forces. “The mission was successful,” says one Message. There were no US casualties.
“They apparently wanted him alive”
According to eyewitnesses, the operation lasted more than two hours, reports Syria expert Charles Lister, senior staff member at the Washington-based Middle East Institute. “Whoever they were looking for, they apparently wanted him alive.” According to Lister, this is “the largest operation of this kind since the operation against Bagdadi”. The leader of the so-called Islamic State IS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, died in a 2019 raid by US special forces in northwestern Syria.
In the civil war country Syria, a military coalition led by the USA is fighting the IS. In the summer of 2014, he took control of large areas in northern Iraq. Shortly thereafter, the jihadists proclaimed a caliphate that also included regions in neighboring Syria. The terrorist militia was defeated militarily in March 2019, but it is still active in both countries and repeatedly carries out attacks.