US Strikes Kill 37 ISIS Operatives, Terrorists in Syria

U.S. Army soldiers prepare to go out on patrol from a remote combat outpost in northeastern Syria on May 25, 2021. John Moore/Getty Images

The United States killed 37 terrorist group members, including leaders tied to ISIS and al-Qaeda affiliate Hurras al-Din in Syria, according to the U.S. military.

U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), which is the military’s operation in the Middle East, conducted the strikes on Sept. 16 and 24 but announced the strikes on Sept. 29.

In the Sept. 24 strike in northwest Syria, the United States said it killed senior Hurras al-Din leader Marwan Bassam Abd-al-Ra‘uf and eight other terrorists. Abd-al-Ra’uf was “responsible for overseeing military operations from Syria,” according to CENTCOM. The strike was conducted a month after another U.S. strike killed Hurras al-Din senior leader Abu-Abd al-Rahman al Makki.

In the Sept. 16 large-scale strike in central Syria, the United States said it eliminated at least four senior ISIS leaders and 24 other ISIS terrorists.

“The airstrike will disrupt ISIS' capability to conduct operations against U.S. interests, as well as our allies and partners,” CENTCOM stated.

In a statement, CENTCOM Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla said the strikes represent a “commitment to the enduring defeat of terrorist organizations in the CENTCOM area of responsibility” and its “support to regional stability.”

The CENTCOM strikes were conducted days before the State Department announced on Sept. 27 that the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS will end its mission in Iraq no later than the end of September 2025 and in Syria in 2026. This move will result in transitioning to U.S. support of Iraq’s military. It will also result in some American troops’ leaving Iraqi bases, although the Biden administration has not said how many.

“Our footprint is going to be changing within the country,” Pentagon deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh said during a press briefing on Sept. 27.

A senior Pentagon official on Sept. 20 provided an update on the military’s anti-ISIS mission in Iraq ahead of the announcement, according to the Department of Defense.

“I think it’s fair to say we’ve had great success in territorially defeating ISIS in the core regions of Iraq and Syria. However, we are all very aware that with ISIS, you can [often] say [they’re] down, but they’re never quite out,” the official said in a statement.

“We remain fully committed to the defeat of ISIS ... That is what we’re working on in Iraq and northeast Syria,” the official said. “[It’s] something that is ongoing every day, and that will very much continue in the future.”

Hurras al-Din “adheres to al-Qa‘ida’s Salafi-jihadist ideology, which advocates attacks against the West and Israel to expel foreign influence from Muslim lands, and it seeks to set the conditions necessary to form a new caliphate across the Levant and the broader Middle East,” according to the National Counterterrorism Center.

The group “maintains access to several longtime al-Qa‘ida members who could enable the group to pose a threat to US and other Western interests outside of Syria, despite its weakened state following successive personnel losses since 2019 that have removed many of the group’s veteran leaders,” according to the center.

The news of the strikes in Syria comes as Israel has killed Hezbollah leaders in strikes over the weekend, including its most senior leader, Hassan Nasrallah.