U.S. Conducts Back-To-Back Raids In Syria, Killing Key ISIS Operatives

The Washington Post

U.S. Conducts Back-To-Back Raids In Syria, Killing Key ISIS Operatives

By Karoun Demirjian

The U.S. military announced on Thursday that it had conducted two raids in Syria within a day of each other, killing two key ISIS targets and their associates.

According to U.S. Central Command, American forces conducted an airstrike in northern Syria on Thursday that targeted and killed Abu-Hashum al-Umawi, a deputy wali, or governor, in Syria, as well as “another senior ISIS official associated with him,” whom the military did not name.

“This strike will degrade ISIS’s ability to destabilize the region and strike at our forces and partners,” Army Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla, who leads U.S. Central Command, said in a statement announcing the raid and al-Umawi’s death. “Our forces remain in the region to ensure the enduring defeat of ISIS.”

The operation against al-Umawi followed a Wednesday night helicopter raid in northeastern Syria, near the village of Qamishli, that targeted and killed Rakkan Wahid al-Shammri, as well as one other associate. Al-Shammri was an ISIS smuggler known to bring in weapons, fighters and money to support the terrorist organization, who had also beheaded two members of the Syrian Defense Forces, according to a person familiar with the operation who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the particulars of the raid and its target.

The raids are the latest in recent operations aimed at killing influential ISIS figures. Over the summer, U.S. military forces killed Hani Ahmed al-Kurdi, a senior ISIS bombmaker known as the “Wali of Raqqa.” That followed the killing of al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, ISIS’s leader at the time, who is believed to have rigged his hideout in Atma, Syria, with explosives that were detonated when the structure was raided.

Full story https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/10/06/us-raid-isis-syria/