The U.S. military said Friday a helicopter raid led by its forces in northeast Syria left senior ISIS leader Hamza al-Homsi dead and four American service members and a working dog wounded.
A U.S. official said the four Americans and the dog were injured when Homsi detonated a suicide vest. The servicemembers are being flown to Landstuhl in Germany. The dog is reported to be in stable condition.
The military said in its brief statement that the operation was conducted Thursday night in partnership with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, which is allied with the U.S.
It did not say in which part of northeast Syria the raid was conducted.
Despite their defeat in Syria in March 2019, ISIS sleeper cells still conduct attacks around Syria and Iraq where they once declared a “caliphate.”
Joint operations between the U.S. military and SDF fighters are common in northeast and eastern Syria along the border with Iraq.
The statement said the service members and working dog are receiving treatment in a U.S. medical facility in neighboring Iraq.
The U.S. military killed two IS leaders in Syria over the past few years.
In February 2021, Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, was killed in a U.S. raid in northwest Syria. IS founder Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was hunted down by the Americans in a raid in October 2019.
In October, the leader of IS, Abu al-Hassan al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, was killed in battle with Syrian rebels in southern Syria.
David Martin contributed to this report.
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