United States and coalition forces conducted a raid in Syria last Friday, killing an Islamic State official and seizing numerous weapons, U.S. Central Command confirmed Wednesday.
In a tweet, CENTCOM officials stated that Ibrahim al-Qahtani, an ISIS leader who coordinated attacks on detention centers housing imprisoned ISIS fighters, was killed in the raid. In addition to seizing the weapons cache, soldiers also found ammunition and a suicide belt.
CENTCOM provided no additional comment beyond the post from its Twitter account.
Prison sites in Syria have been targets for insurgents in the past. In January 2022, ISIS fighters attacked a prison in al-Hasakah, Syria. Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces eventually repelled the attack and subsequent prison riot, killing more than 400 ISIS fighters. Some 120 partnered forces were killed in the exchange.
The raid last week is the latest in a string of operations meant to weaken ISIS operations in Syria. Last month, CENTCOM elements conducted a helicopter assault with U.S.-allied Syrian Democratic Forces, capturing an ISIS operative in charge of regional media and security.
U.S. forces have operated in Syria since 2015 to combat the rapid expansion of the terror group’s territorial holdings in Iraq and Syria. Since the collapse of the so-called ISIS caliphate, American troops have remained in Syria to chase lingering extremists, train U.S.-backed militias and guard oil fields.
More than 10,000 ISIS fighters are currently imprisoned in Syria.
Zamone “Z” Perez is a reporter at Military Times. He previously worked at Foreign Policy and Ufahamu Africa. He is a graduate of Northwestern University, where he researched international ethics and atrocity prevention in his thesis. He can be found on Twitter @zamoneperez.
