US President Joe Biden stated on Thursday morning, February 3, that US forces had carried out a raid in Syria that led to the dying of Islamic State chief Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi. Biden stated al-Qurayshi – whom he additionally refers to as Hajji Abdullah – took over management IS in 2019 after its earlier chief, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was killed in a raid by US particular forces in Syria’s Idlib province. Biden stated the IS chief “oversaw the unfold of ISIS-affiliated terrorist teams all over the world”; had been the “driving drive behind the genocide of the Yazidi folks in northwestern Iraq” in 2014; and was answerable for a current assault on a jail in northeast Syria that was holding IS prisoners. Biden stated that as a result of al-Qurayshi was in a populated space, the US carried out a “particular forces raid” somewhat than concentrating on him with an airstrike. “We made this selection to reduce civilian casualties,” Biden stated. The president confirmed civilian casualties within the raid, however stated they died when al-Qurayshi detonated a suicide vest. “In a last act of determined cowardness [sic], with no regard for the lives of his family, or others within the constructing, he selected to blow himself up […] taking a number of members of his household with him, simply as a predecessor did,” Biden stated. Biden didn’t take questions from media, telling them he was late leaving for an appointment in New York Metropolis. Credit score: The White Home by way of Storyful