SEVERAL CIVILIANS KILLED IN US SPECIAL OPERATIONS RAID IN SYRIA’S IDLIB

Thu 03 February 2022:

According to villagers and rebel fighters, several civilians, including children, were killed in a raid by US special operations forces in northwest Syria.

Local sources told Al Jazeera on Thursday at least 12 people, including seven children and three women, were killed in the overnight operation near the Turkey border in the province of Idlib, the last rebel enclave resisting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces.

The raid hit a densely populated area where tens of thousands of people displaced from Syria’s war live in makeshift camps or overcrowded housing.

Several residents, speaking to The Associated Press news agency on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals, also reported civilian deaths and said they saw body parts scattered around a house in the village of Atmeh.

Syria – Idlib

Circulating pictures of the house that was subjected to a raid in #Atma, northern rural #Idlib. pic.twitter.com/lVutZ9knk5

— On the Ground News (@OGNreports) February 3, 2022

The White Helmets rescue a girl who was injured during the airdrop of US planes in the #Atma area in the northern #Idlib countryside. pic.twitter.com/9eqUH8vaWF

— IDLIB POST (@IdlibEn) February 3, 2022

Heavy gunfire

In a statement, the Pentagon said the “mission was successful” but provided no details on who was the target of the raid, or if there were any casualties.

“U.S. Special Operations forces under the control of U.S. Central Command conducted a counter-terrorism mission this evening in northwest Syria,” Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby said, “There were no U.S. casualties. More information will be provided as it becomes available.”

Images of the scene following an overnight raid by US special operations forces against suspected jihadists in Atmeh, Syria’s northwestern province of Idlib, which left at least nine people dead, including three civilians.

📸: Aaref Watad/AFP

READ MORE: https://t.co/aa6d46OD22 pic.twitter.com/Txo4y786zf

— Rudaw English (@RudawEnglish) February 3, 2022

9 killed in US operation in Syria’s Idlib https://t.co/SmSCwR41kr pic.twitter.com/Z6D5yqt0Io

— ANADOLU AGENCY (@anadoluagency) February 3, 2022

💣 #US Coalition airdrop led to killing of 7 kids and 3 women in quote, unquote, “successful mission.” *¹ in northern #Idlib countryside.

At the scene @freeehsem – https://t.co/OVlWIeGvM0

*¹ DoD Statement on Feb. 2, 2022 https://t.co/D3tP7sYc5f pic.twitter.com/vkShdBrV5R

— TNT (@TNTranslations) February 3, 2022

Reuters news agency reported the raid was believed to have targeted a suspected al Qaeda-affiliated fighter, but there was no other information on the person’s identity and no immediate reports of any fighters being killed. Residents said they heard heavy gunfire during the operation, indicating resistance to the raid.

Video clips posted by the pro-rebel Syria TV channel showed a wounded child being carried by emergency rescuers as well as concrete debris.

The channel said the videos were taken in Atmeh, which is along the border across the southern Turkish province of Hatay.

Charles Lister, senior fellow with the Washington-based Middle East Institute, told Reuters 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 al-Baghdadi raid, he said, referring to a 2019 US special operations raid in northwest Syria that killed ISIL (ISIS) leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

Residents and rebel sources told Reuters several helicopters landed near Atmeh and explosions were heard near the home of a foreign fighter.

The fighter who was the suspected target was with his family at the time of the raid, said a rebel official who declined to be named.

One resident said several people were killed in the raid, while another said rescuers pulled out at least 12 bodies from the rubble of a multistorey building.

Another social media post said the casualties included three women and seven children.

Witnesses said the raid appeared to have ended, but unidentified reconnaissance planes were still hovering in the area.

Something big is going down in NW #Syria — (a) U.S. helicopter gunships firing on a target in the #Jinderes area of #Afrin & (b) a possible SOF raid targeting Tauqir Sharif, a [former] #UK citizen in the Atmeh area of #Idlib.pic.twitter.com/S2KWnFtAK5

— Charles Lister (@Charles_Lister) February 2, 2022

The rebel official said security from Hay’et 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 Hay’et Tahrir al-Sham, formerly al-Nusra Front, which was part of al-Qaeda until 2016.

Several foreign militants who left the group formed the Huras al-Din (Guardians of Religion) group, which the US has labeled as a “foreign terrorist organization” and has been the focus of coalition attacks in recent years.

For years, the US military has primarily utilized drones to assassinate top al-Qaeda operatives in northern Syria, where the rebel group first emerged during Syria’s more than ten-year civil war.

Operations by the US-led coalition targeting ISIL sleeper cells are becoming increasingly common in northeastern Syria, which is controlled by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces.

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