Special Operations Degree In Syria, US-led Coalition Arrests Senior ISIS Leader: Experienced Bomb Maker

ISIS illustration. (Wikimedia Commons / aharan_kotogo)

JAKARTA - The US-led coalition said it had detained a senior leader of the Islamic State group in Syria during an operation Thursday morning.

The coalition carries out raids and raids targeting members of the jihadist group, which has been waging insurgent attacks since its battlefield defeat three years ago.

"The detained person was assessed as an experienced bombmaker and facilitator, who became one of the group's highest leaders in Syria," the statement said, adding that no civilians were injured during the operation or the plane was damaged.

The coalition did not specify where Thursday's attack in Syria took place.

However, a spokesman for the Turkey-backed Syrian rebel group told Reuters earlier that coalition forces had carried out a helicopter strike on Al-Humaira village, south of the Turkish border, the first operation of its kind in the area.

Meanwhile, Major Youssef Hamoud, spokesman for the Turkey-backed Syrian National Army (SNA), said US-made Chinook and Black Hawk helicopters were involved in the attack, but said the exact circumstances were unclear at the time.

"This is the first (US) helicopter landing operation to take place "in areas under SNA control," he said.

A source linked to rebels in the area said clashes erupted during the operation.

It is known, United States special forces in February carried out a helicopter attack in Syria's Idlib province controlled by the jihadist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) which led to the death of ISIS leader Abu Ibrahim Al-Hashemi Al-Quraishi.

Quraishi has led the group since the death of its founder Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who was also killed when he detonated explosives in a US strike in 2019.