Pentagon Claims US Special Forces Successfully Launch Counter-terrorism Mission In Syria, Targets Al-Qaeda-linked Figures

Illustration of US special forces. (Wikimedia Commons US Army/Staff Sgt. Aubree Clute)

JAKARTA - United States special forces from the US Special Operations Force (SOF) successfully carried out a counter-terrorism mission in northwestern Syria on Thursday, the Pentagon said.

The Pentagon did not provide further details about the operation, but said there were no US casualties.

Residents of the northwestern Syrian city of Atmeh and rebels fighting the Syrian government previously reported that there were several civilian casualties in the operation.

It said the special forces operation, which lasted two hours, was believed to have targeted a suspected jihadist, who is affiliated with the Al-Qaeda group.

"US Special Operations Forces under the control of US Central Command carried out a counter-terrorism mission tonight in northwestern Syria. The mission was a success," Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby said in a statement.

"There were no casualties on the US side. Further information will be provided as it becomes available."

Residents of Atmeh said the attack took place around midnight, in a densely populated area near the border with Turkey, where tens of thousands of Syrian refugees live in makeshift camps or overcrowded housing.

Illustration of US special forces. (Wikimedia Commons/Christopher Lange)

There were no reports of jihadists being killed, but residents said they heard loud gunshots during the operation, indicating resistance to the attack.

One resident said several people died in the attack, while another said rescuers removed at least 12 bodies from the rubble of the high-rise building, including children and women.

Residents and rebel sources said helicopters landed near Atmeh, Idlib province, the last major enclave held by insurgents battling Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and explosions were heard near the home of a foreign jihadist.

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

Witnesses said the attack ended with the plane believed to be a helicopter leaving the scene, but an unidentified reconnaissance plane still hovering in the area.

Meanwhile, rebel officials said security from the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group rushed to the site after the attack.

The northwestern part of Syria, Idlib province and the belt of territory around it, is largely controlled by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the former Nusra Front, which was part of al Qaeda until 2016.

Several foreign jihadist figures who broke away from the group have formed the Huras al-Din group, which is designated a foreign terrorist organization, which has in recent years been the target of coalition attacks.

For years, the US military has launched mostly drones to kill al-Qaeda figures in northern Syria, where the militant group has been active during the more than a decade of Syria's civil war.

US-led coalition operations against remnants of ISIS sleeper cells are more common in northeastern Syria, which is held by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces.

Separately, Charles Lister, a senior research fellow at the Washington-based Middle East Institute, said he had spoken to residents who revealed the operation lasted more than two hours.

"Clearly they want whoever is still alive. This seems to be the largest of this type of operation" since the Baghdadi attack, Lister said.

ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi died in a special operations raid by US forces in northwestern Syria in 2019.