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Helicopter Involved in IS Leader Raid Destroyed by US Forces Amid Mechanical Issue, Officials Say
US officials said that one helicopter involved in the operation targeting the Islamic State (IS) leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi “had a mechanical issue and had to be destroyed”. Syrian Civil Defense reported that at least 13 people, including six children, died in the raid. Speaking on Thursday, President Joe Biden confirmed civilian deaths, but said they were caused by al-Qurayshi detonating a suicide vest. Biden said al-Qurayshi took control of IS in 2019 after its previous leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was killed in a raid by US special forces. Biden said al-Qurayshi was the “driving force behind the genocide of the Yazidi people in northwestern Iraq” in 2014, and blamed him for a recent attack on a prison in northeast Syria that holds IS prisoners. This video, which appeared along with others showing the same scene on Thursday, was taken less than four miles north of the site of the raid. The remains of a helicopter can be seen. Credit: Qasioun News Agency via Storyful
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