NEWSRAEL: This was obviously a large and important raid which we have little, if any real details of. The use of four helicopters, which made landings suggests ground troops were brought in and that would not have been done if the intel that the target was there. We will keep monitoring the news around this subject and bring them to you when available. (See Israeli source update at the end of the reuters report)
AMMAN, Feb 3 (Reuters) - A U.S.-led coalition troops ground raid on Thursday targeted a suspected al Qaeda-affiliated jihadist in the northern Syrian town of Atmeh, resulting in several casualties, said residents and sources with the rebels fighting against the Syrian government.
One resident said at least 12 people were killed in the raid that took place around midnight in a densely populated area near the border with Turkey, where tens of thousands of displaced Syrians live in makeshift camps or overcrowded housing.
There was no immediate reports of any jihadist being killed, but residents said they heard heavy gunfire during the operation, indicating resistance to the raid.
The U.S. State Department and the spokesperson for the coalition forces in northern Syria did not respond to requests for comment.
Charles Lister, senior fellow with the Washington-based Middle East Institute, said he had spoken to residents who said the operation lasted more than two hours.
"Clearly they wanted whoever it was alive," Lister said.
"This looks like the biggest of this type of operation" since the Baghdadi raid, he said.
Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi died in a U.S. special operations raid in northwest Syria in 2019.
Residents and rebel sources saidseveral helicopters landed near Atmeh in the province of Idlib, the last big enclave held by insurgents fighting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and explosions were heard near the home of a foreign jihadist.
The jihadist who was the suspected targeted was with his family at the time of the raid, said a rebel official who declined to be named.
Witnesses said the raid had ended as aircraft believed to be choppers had left the site, but unidentified reconnaissance planes were still hovering in the area.
The rebel official said security from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the main rebel group that controls parts of northwest Syria, hurried to the location after the raid.
The northwest of Syria - Idlib province and a belt of territory around it - is mostly held by Hyat Tahrir al-Sham, the former Nusra Front, which was part of al Qaeda until 2016.
Several foreign jihadists figures who split from the group have set up the Huras al-Din (Guardians of Religion) group, designated as a foreign terrorist organisation, which has in recent years been the target of coalition strikes.
For years, the U.S. military has launched mostly drones to kill top al-Qaeda operatives in northern Syria, where the militant group became active during Syria’s over decade-long civil war.
U.S.-led coalition operations against remnants of Islamic State sleeper cells are more frequent in northeast Syria held by Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces.
From Israeli sources:
Arab sources report that after midnight, American forces were launched from the air in the Atma area, Idlib, very close to the border with Turkey. An exchange of fire took place at the site and according to some sources it took about three hours until the end of the operation.
Sources in Idlib report that a building in which three families lived was attacked and that there were at least 13 dead, including women and children who were rescued from under the ruins of the building.
According to estimates, the target was a "senior" and perhaps the "most senior" in the ISIS organization.
The operation took place about 20 km from the point where Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the first ISIS leader, was killed by the Americans.
According to Reuters, President Biden is expected to address the action during the day.
Despite various reports, the Pentagon notes that there were no casualties among U.S. forces.