ISIS Mastermind Assassinated, 4 US Officials Injured

The US military informed ‘Senior’ ISIS official Hamza Al-Homsi that he was assassinated in a helicopter raid in northern Syria that left four US service members and a dog wounded .

Highlights

Hamza al-Homsi was put to death in a raid on Friday night in northern Syria

Exclusive: ISIS leader Hamza al-Homsi has been assassinated in Syria in an operation carried out by The Pentagon and Syrian coalition forces. Four US troop members were severely injured, along with a dog, and all are receiving treatment in Iraq. They suffered injuries from an explosion. The cause of that explosion is still yet to be known.

The US Central Command announced the joint operation on Friday in a statement “Last night, during a joint US and Syrian Democratic Forces raid in northern Syria, an explosion on target got 4 officials injured and severely wounded.

The ISIS leader, Hamza al-Homsi, was killed. “The officials are badly injured and are sent for treatment in a US based medical facility in Iraq”, the Pentagon said. The intel about the ISIS leader is meagre. His role in the terror outfit is not clear. The raid is conducted few weeks after an operation by the US army killed killed Ibrahim Al Qahtani, another ISIS official who planned to assist ISIS prisoners escape.

Recently, the US officials killed another top ISIS official in a raid in an Eastern African country. A top ISIS leader was killed in a U.S. raid in northeastern Syria, U.S. Central Command said Friday.

The operation was a coalition between the US Military and Syrian Forces.

The raid, a joint operation conducted with the Syrian Forces, led to an explosion that killed the target and afflicted four U.S. service members who are now receiving treatment, with injuries, according to a statement from the Pentagon.

Al-Homsi was one of several senior ISIS officials targeted by the U.S. over the past year. The U.S. notably killed Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi during a military operation in early 2022 and captured a top leader of the Islamic State militant group in Syria during a U.S.-led coalition operation in mid-June, according to the Pentagon. Senior ISIS leader Maher al-Agal was killed in a drone strike conducted by the U.S. military in July, according to Central Command.

Central Command informed in December that American forces and their allies killed a total of 600 ISIS suspects operating in Syria and Iraq in the early months of 2022. Three of the members are in a stable condition, according to another military official familiar with the raid. The fourth service member suffered minor bruises and has returned to duty, the member said.

Three of the officials are presently undergoing medical treatment in a secured facility in Iraq. The US service members may be sent to the military hospital in Germany, for further treatment, according to the two officials. The joint operation was conducted by US and Syrian coalition Forces, said Central Command. No Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) troops were injured in the operation, the two officials told the media.

Two other ISIS leaders were killed in Syria in October last year, when the US carried out an airstrike in northern Syria. The strike killed Abu ‘Ala, ISIS’ leader in Syria and one of the terror outfit’s top five leaders, as well as Abu Mu’Ad al-Qahtani, an ISIS leader in charge of prisoner affairs. Another senior ISIS leader, Bilal al-Sudani, was killed in a US military operation in the northeastern African country.