Four U.S. military servicemembers were wounded, along with a working dog, during a helicopter raid in Syria that killed a senior ISIS leader Thursday night.
An explosion on the target in northwestern Syria injured the four servicemembers and working dog, all of whom are now being treated at a U.S. medical facility in Iraq, according to a press release from U.S. Central Command provided to American Military News.
The explosion happened during a joint raid between U.S. and Syrian Democratic Forces that targeted Hamza al-Homsi, a senior leader in the militant Islamist group ISIS, the release stated.
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U.S. Central Command, or CENTCOM, oversees military operations in the Middle East. Earlier this week, CENTCOM reported that a Feb. 10 raid resulted in the killing of an ISIS official, Ibrahim Al Qahtani, who was associated with planning attacks on prisons where ISIS fighters are detained.
CENTCOM said more than 10,000 ISIS members are detained in Syria. The raid “resulted in the seizure of multiple weapons, ammo, and a suicide belt,” according to CENTCOM.
ISIS was largely defeated around 2019, but there are still about 900 U.S. troops deployed in Syria “to keep an ISIS resurgence at bay,” a military spokesman told the Washington Post in December. Most U.S. troops share bases in the north part of the country with Syrian rebel forces amid the country’s ongoing civil war.
A team of 85 countries founded in 2014, The Global Coalition To Defeat ISIS (D-ISIS), is still operating against the group. In January, the “CENTCOM-led coalition” conducted 43 operations that saw 11 ISIS operatives killed and 227 detained, according to a press release.
Nearly 200 operatives were detained in Syria and two were killed, while in Iraq, nine were killed and 29 were detained.
This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates as more information becomes available.
