ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - One person was killed in a US airborne operation early Thursday morning in a Syrian government controlled area south of Qamishli.
The operation by the US was conducted through several helicopters in the village of Muluk Saray in the southern countryside of Qamishli, AFP sourced Syrian state television as saying, adding that one person was killed during the operation.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) on Thursday told Rudaw English that the person killed had been a resident of the village, and according to their local sources, was likely to be affiliated to the Islamic State (ISIS).
SOHR added that the “US forces carried out an airdrop operation after midnight on Wednesday-Thursday, within the areas of influence of the Syrian regime for the first time.”
The observatory added that several other people were arrested in the process.
The US Central Command (CENTCOM) later in the day confirmed that they had conducted a helicopter raid near Qamishli that targeted an ISIS official “known to facilitate the smuggling of weapons and fighters” to support the militant group’s operations.
The statement added that the targeted individual was killed, one of his associates was wounded, and two other associated were arrested in the raid.
ISIS controlled swathes of Syrian and Iraqi land in 2014 but was territorially defeated in both countries by 2019. However, the group continues posing threats to both countries.
The US operation is the first of its kind inside Syrian government controlled areas and comes just under three months after a US drone strike killed ISIS leader, Maher al-Agal.
Agal’s takedown marked the third leader of the notorious jihadist group to be killed in northwest Syria, a region largely controlled by rebel groups backed by Turkey.
US forces killed former ISIS top leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi in a daring overnight operation on his house in Idlib, northwest Syria on February 3. He blew himself up as US forces advanced on his property.
Three years prior, longtime ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi died in a similar US forces raid in another area of Idlib. Baghdadi detonated a suicide vest after being cornered in a tunnel with three of his children.
However despite the US-led Coalition being in Syria to fight ISIS remnants, US strikes also target Iran-backed groups across the country.
US President Joe Biden in August said that he had directed strikes against Iran-backed militia groups in order to deter them from “conducting or supporting further attacks on United States personnel and facilities”.
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