Central Command reports that US forces conducted a raid in Syria that led to the death of a senior ISIS leader.
A press release from CENTCOM says, “Early this morning in al-Bab, Aleppo Governate, Syria, CENTCOM Forces conducted a raid resulting in the death of senior ISIS Leader, Dhiya’ Zawba Muslih al-Hardani, and his two adult ISIS-affiliated sons, Abdallah Dhiya al-Hardani and Abd al-Rahman Dhiya Zawba al-Hardani.”
For a decade, hundreds of US soldiers have occupied Syria. In June, the Donald Trump administration announced it would reduce troop levels there from 2,000 to 1,500.
President Barack Obama deployed forces to Syria without congressional authorization, insisting the illegal occupation was necessary to repel the threat posed by the Islamic State.
However, the rise of the ISIS in Syria was a result of US policy. Following the 2011 regime change in Libya, Washington and several allies funneled jihadist fighters and weapons to Syria in support of the opposition to Bashar al-Assad. As the US intelligence community predicted, the opposition was dominated by extremists who ultimately formed an Islamic Caliphate.
“If the situation unravels, there is the possibility of establishing a declared or undeclared Salafist principality in Eastern Syria (Hasaka and Deir ez-Zor), and this is exactly what the supporting powers to the opposition want, in order to isolate the Syrian regime,” the Defense Intelligence Agency said in a 2012 memo later obtained by Judicial Watch.
Even after the Islamic State lost its territory, it continued as an insurgent group that would attack forces loyal to the Assad government. Since Assad’s ouster, ISIS has refused to acknowledge the legitimacy of the new jihadist government in Damascus, but has mostly fought against the semi-autonomous Kurdish state in eastern Syria.
Since Assad was forced from Syria late last year, fighting has intensified across most of the country. Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes and occupies part of southern Syria. Ruled by Abu Mohammad al-Jolani – formerly the head of Syria’s al-Qaeda affiliate, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham – the new government has carried out ethnic massacres against Alawites and Druze.