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QAMISHLI, Syria: A rare US helicopter raid on a government-held village in Syria’s northeast on Thursday killed a Daesh official hiding out there, two security sources said.
The United States has carried out previous raids in Syria against members of Daesh, but Thursday’s would be the first known operation in a zone held by forces loyal to President Bashar Assad.
Early on Thursday, US special forces carried out a rare operation on the government-held village of Muluk Saray in the northeastern province of Hasakah, Syrian state television said in its Telegram channel.
It said one person was killed and others were captured. It gave no further details on their identities.
Two security sources later told Reuters that the man who was killed was a Daesh group official wanted by the United States.
“The airborne operation targeted a key Daesh leader present in the areas controlled by the Syrian government. It was successful,” one of the security sources said.
The source said the man who was killed was responsible for coordinating across Daesh sleeper cells in the area.
“This operation aims to expand the scope of targeting this organization’s members across different parts of Syria,” the source added.
The second source confirmed the man killed was an Daesh official and said the US forces had taken his body with them as they retreated.
A local source said the man had moved to the village of Muluk Saray in recent years from Taif, a town near the border with Iraq that was once an Daesh stronghold.
“People thought he was a shepherd — no one knows his true identity,” said the source.
The local source said US forces also raided a building used by Syrian security and detained “several people” there.
Other residents of the area confirmed the raid to Reuters.
One said that US helicopters landed in the village after midnight and told residents by loudspeaker to stay indoors and keep their lights off. The resident said the operation lasted several hours and that there was no exchange of fire with the US troops.
A spokesperson for the US-led coalition formed to fight Daesh did not immediately respond to a request for comment.