US says it killed ISIS leader in attack with at least 13 dead in Syria (photos)

“Thanks to the bravery of our armed forces, we have eliminated Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi,” said President Joe Biden.

They added that consequently Kurayshi had detonated a bomb that killed him and his family members.

Syrian rescue groups said they had found the bodies of 13 people after the attack.

Several U.S. helicopters landed on the outskirts of the opposition town of Atmeh, north of Idlib province near the border with Turkey.

Local sources added that the soldiers had encountered resistance and were found under the fire of machine guns mounted on vehicles, writes the British network BBC.

Gunfire and artillery fire were heard for about two hours before the helicopters left.

The American daily New York Times wrote that a helicopter had been abandoned at the scene after a technical problem, and had later been destroyed by an air strike by the US.

Views of the ruins are published online.

President Biden said the Americans had suffered no losses in the operation.

The AFP agency visited a two-storey house believed to have been the target of the attack and showed the bloody walls and rooms destroyed by the bullets.

Local rescue teams said the bodies of 13 victims were found in the building, including six children and four women.

A senior US official told Reuters: “At the beginning of the operation, the terrorist target detonated a bomb that hit him and his family members, including children and women.”

Kurayshi’s predecessor, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, had killed himself and his three children in October 2019 during a similar US special forces operation.

Northwest Syria is a stronghold of Turkish-backed jihadists and rebels, who are fierce rivals of ISIS, according to the US.

The United States has announced that it has killed the head of the Islamic State this morning in a special forces raid.