A U.S. defense official said there were no injuries to U.S. military personnel and no damage to the aircraft involved in the raid. The ISIS leader was not immediately identified. “Coalition forces arrested a senior Daesh leader during an operation in Syria on June 16,” Operation Inherent Resolve said in a statement. “The detainee was deemed to be an experienced bomb maker and facilitator who became one of the group’s top leaders in Syria.” The US ground offensive in northwestern Syria is dangerous because it takes place far west of US bases in eastern Syria in areas controlled by either extremists or the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. “The mission was meticulously designed to minimize the risk of collateral damage, particularly any possible damage to civilians,” the OIR said. “There were no civilian casualties during the operation or damage to aircraft or Coalition assets.” US ground operations in northwestern Syria have targeted top ISIS leaders, most notably Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who committed suicide during an October 2019 raid near the border with Turkey, carried out by the elite West. . His successor, Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, detonated his explosives during a similar raid in February this year. “Coalition forces will continue to pursue Daesh remnants wherever they hide to ensure their continued defeat,” Operation Inherent Resolve added. Daesh is another name used to describe ISIS. The terrorist group was defeated militarily in Syria in 2019 and since then, its leaders have been hiding to prevent the target of US forces. However, ISIS fighters maintain a low-level insurgency in Iraq and Syria, and the group continues to inspire its supporters in the West to carry out violent attacks. In January, ISIS carried out its largest operation since its military defeat as hundreds of ISIS fighters tried to free thousands of terrorist fighters held in a jail in Hasaka in northeastern Syria. After 10 days of fierce fighting, US-backed Syrian Kurdish forces, with the help of US airstrikes, managed to retake the prison, although several hundred ISIS detainees are believed to have escaped. Kurdish forces claim that 374 ISIS fighters were killed in an attempt to break free from prison.
