ISIS leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi has been reported as killed in a US raid in Syria. BBC. The raid was conducted by US special forces and resulted in no US deaths. The raid took place in the town of Atmeh and resulted in the deaths of at least 13 people, including 6 children, according to local first responders. Several US helicopters unloaded troops around midnight local time. The troops then came under heavy fire from antiair equipped technicals (pickup trucks with mounted guns). The raid is believed to be the largest raid against ISIS since the 2019 killing of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
The Associated Press has a longer, more detailed story about the raid.
My Comment:
With the initial facts on this incident I have to say that this probably the best thing the Biden administration has accomplished and, in my view, the only positive thing they have accomplished. The ISIS leader was a bad person and now he is dead and that is a good thing. Though I am loath to give Biden credit for anything this raid was needed and I am glad no US forces were killed in the fighting. However, I do have to point out that this is still breaking news and things could change rapidly.
This attack was necessary as ISIS was making a bit of a comeback in Syria. They just had a major battle targeting a prison in Syria and they were successful in releasing many of them prisoners there. The battle was eventually lost but they did manage to accomplish some of their goals. There was a real fear that ISIS was going to make a comeback with the new forces they had managed to free.
To be fair, that absolutely could still happen. Killing one man won't stop ISIS and it's not the first time they have lost their leadership. Al-Qurayshi replaced al-Baghdadi. Leadership matters of course but the real threat is from the foot soldiers that are now running around. Losing their leader is a setback to be sure but it's not a crippling blow.
There are going to be a lot of questions about how the women and children died in this raid. It's possible that the woman were combatants but if they aren't then questions are going to be asked about only three men died along with so many women and children. Without details about how those people died and who killed them it's unclear if this will backfire on Biden or not. It's possible that they were caught in the crossfire, killed by ISIS, killed by other forces on the ground or were active partcipants in the battle. But it's also possible that they were killed by US forces.
I, of course, remember how the supposed strike on ISIS fighters in Afghanistan turned out to be Biden blowing away 10 innocent people, including 7 children. At the time it was hailed as a victory for Biden, who sorely needed one in the wake of the Afghanistan debacle. But in the end it turned on him and it further stained his legacy, such as it is.
Could something similar happen here? It's possible but I would have to think that even the Biden administration would be smart enough to confirm that al-Qurayshi was actually dead. That still doesn't answer the question of high civilian casualties, including children. That needs to be explained and explained soon before we know what kind of impact this will have. If it was US forces that were responsible and there is no reasonable explanation there will be hell to pay and any credit Biden would have gotten for this raid will evaporate instantly.
But even if the narrative ends up favoring Biden in the end, I doubt he will get much credit for this. People simply aren't worried about ISIS anymore. It's been a very long time since the bad days of 2014 to 2016 when we were seemingly having daily ISIS attacks. Now they are mostly a bad memory with few people even knowing who al-Qurayshi was.
Biden might get a slight bump from this but it's not the same situation as Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Everyone know who that guy was and what he did. Most people hated him and gave President Trump credit for killing him. He was someone. Al-Qurayshi? He's a nobody. And ISIS is not the threat it once was, even if they are having a bit of a resurgence. I'm glad that he is dead but the emotional impact is nowhere near the same.
I don't think ISIS is on the radar for most people right now. If people are worried about anything right now, it's the economy and the various coronavirus restrictions. They worry about food shortages and political instability. And they worry about the state of our supposed president. They might be happy that one of our avowed enemies is dead but that doesn't outweigh everything else...
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