ISIS official killed in rare helicopter raid by US in Syria.
A rare US helicopter raid on a government-held village in Syria’s northeast killed an ISIS official hiding out there on Thursday, two security sources said.
The United States has carried out previous raids in Syria against members of ISIS, but Thursday’s would be the first known operation in a zone held by forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad.
Early on Thursday, US special forces carried out a rare operation on the government-held village of Muluk Saray in the northeastern province of Hasaka, Syrian state television said in its Telegram channel.
It said one person was killed and others were captured. It gave no further details on their identities.
US Central Command (CENTCOM) Spokesman Col. Joseph Buccino told Al Arabiya English that US forces conducted a “raid” overnight Wednesday, targeting a “senior ISIS official.”
Buccino added that more information would be released once operational details were confirmed.
Two security sources told Reuters that the man who was killed was an ISIS official wanted by the United States.
“The airborne operation targeted a key ISIS leader present in the areas controlled by the Syrian government. It was successful,” one of the security sources said.
The source said the man who was killed was responsible for coordinating across ISIS sleeper cells in the area.
“This operation aims to expand the scope of targeting this organisation’s members across different parts of Syria,” the source added.
The second source confirmed the man killed was an ISIS official and said the US forces had taken his body with them as they retreated.
The terrorist as a shepherd
A local source said the man had moved to the village of Muluk Saray in recent years from Taif, a town near the border with Iraq that was once an ISIS stronghold.
“People thought he was a shepherd, and no one knows his true identity,” said the source.
