An alleged Islamic State (IS) leader is dead after a raid in northeast Syria on Friday, the U.S. military said.
Four American soldiers were wounded in the helicopter raid, according to WFAA. A military working dog was also injured during the operation when an explosion was set off.
The alleged IS leader was named as Hamza al-Homsi in a tweet from U.S. Central Command. The raid was conducted in partnership with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which often collaborates with the United States military in the northeast and eastern regions of Syria.
Col. Joe Buccino, spokesperson for U.S. Central Command, did not go into detail about the raid other than to say that al-Homsi triggered an explosion during the operation.
Al-Homsi, Buccino said, was responsible for the IS network in northern Syria.
The SDF is a group of Kurdish fighters who have conducted a campaign against IS for years. No SDF fighters were killed or injured during the operation, according to Reuters.
The four U.S. service members and the dog were receiving treatment at an Iraqi medical facility.
The tweet did not name the part of northeastern Syria where the raid was conducted.
IS is still active in Syria and Iraq despite setbacks in 2019. Sleeper cells conduct attacks in areas previously considered part of the Islamic State.
Al-Homsi is just the latest alleged IS leader killed by the United States in the past few years.
IS’s supposed founder, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was killed in an October 2019 raid.
Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, another suspected IS leader, was killed during an operation in northwest Syria in February 2021.
A third alleged IS leader, Abu al-Hassan al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, was reportedly killed in southern Syria in October during a battle with Syrian rebel forces.
