Another Jihadi Leader Down ... No Shortage of Others

"Hajji Abdullah oversaw the spread of [IS]-affiliated terrorist groups around the world after savaging communities and murdering innocents, as the driving force behind the genocide of the Yazidi people in north-western Iraq in 2014."                                                                                                                    "We all remember the gut-wrenching stories of mass slaughters that wiped out entire villages, thousands of women and young girls sold into slavery, rape used as a weapon of war."                                                                                               "Thanks to the bravery of our troops this horrible terrorist leader is no more."            U.S.President Joe Biden

"The explosion, which was more massive than would be expected from a suicide vest, killed everyone on the third floor and in fact ejected multiple people from the building."

Marine General Frank McKenzie

 

"[US forces engaged a small group of people who approached the area during the two-hour mission and were] deemed hostile, [resulting in two of them being killed]." 

"That resulted in the end of hostile activity. It appears as if a child was also killed."

"[The US doesn't] have perfect knowledge of every single person who was killed."

"More than ten women, children and babies [had been safely evacuated from the house before the bomb hit]."

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby

 

The Sharia Islamic scholar who led the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant as its second leader in depraved inhumanity after the death of the founder of the Islamic State in an earlier successful assassination to rid the world of vicious scum -- chose, when he understood that reprisal was in store for him through the auspices of U.S. special troops involved in a raid in his village to secure his home and extract him to face justice for crimes against humanity -- chose to exit life on his own volition, taking his family with him.

 

The raid that targeted Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi certainly took the villagers of the town by surprise. The target was the three-story building that Qurayshi and his family occupied on the third floor. The American military took care to convince others sharing the house to expeditiously exit the building, assuring them they would be in the care and protection of the U.S. Army. A move that prevented other deaths above and beyond the 13 that ensued when the building was bombed.

 

In a sense their prey evaded justice by choosing to destroy his life and that of his wife and two children. His 'martyrdom' would be a matter of celebration for ISIL members, on his ascent to Paradise. His loss to ISIL is not insurmountable; there are other young, brutal and ambitious aspirants to take his place; there always will be. The portrayal of the raid leading to the ISIL leader's death as a 'catastrophic' blow is a bit overblown by the U.S.

 

But then, President Biden is looking for good news, to be congratulated on taking an initiative finally on destroying the most immediate ISIL candidate for restoring America's reputation as a resolute, reliable ally in the struggle of good against evil. Certainly the degraded, abysmal performance of the U.S. administration and its military from its Afghanistan withdrawal did it no credit anywhere in the world. 

The ISIL cells loyal to the original vision of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi face no shortage of martyrdom-seeking jihadis to fill their ranks in areas of Iraq and Syria and Africa. They will take inspiration from the fearless defiance of their now-defunct leader, in taking decisive action to free himself from the bonds of existence so he could ascend to the heavens to meet his maker. He detonated his suicide bomb before U.S. forces could reach him.

"[Qurayshi was responsible for] savaging communities and murdering innocents."

"In a final act of desperate cowardice, with no regard to the lives of his own family or others in the building, he chose to blow himself up, rather than face justice for the crimes he has committed, taking several members of his family with him."

"Thanks to the bravery of our troops this horrible terrorist leader is no more."

U.S.President Joe Biden

President Biden's self-congratulatory statements ring rather hollow, as well. He speaks of the man evading 'justice' but that would be, under international law, being tried for his unspeakable crimes in a court of justice. Qurayshi decided to take his own life rather than give it to Biden. As for the jihadi's killing of his family, it is a way of retaining honour in the mind of the jihadist horde. A mindset oblivious of and scornful of 'international law'.

Interior of a building destroyed in the aftermath of a counter-terrorism mission conducted by the U.S. Special Operations Forces is seen in Atmeh, Syria, February 3, 2022. Mohamed Al-Daher/Handout via REUTERS

A bomb powerful enough to blow to pieces people outside of the three-storey house and into the neighbourhood surrounding it. Nearby olive groves were scattered with rubble from the blast. Also dead, a man and woman who opened fire on U.S. forces from the second floor, where a child also was killed. According to Syrian rescue workers, four women and six children were among the 13 people killed in the raid. What a show of U.S. bravery!

 

ISIL had recently broken its silent, sinister threat in the staging of a ten-day assault on a northeast Syrian prison where Kurdish forces held thousands of its supporters in crowded prisons, a few weeks earlier. ISIL fighters held off the Kurdish People's Defense Units for ten days with the prison attack that saw 77 prison staff killed, along with 374 prisoners and ISIL fighters. It might have been interpreted as a rout for ISIL, but that's not the way they saw it, considering it instead a coup

 

An event that led to social media exploding in support of the group. Another ISIL raid on an Iraqi military base killed eleven soldiers. That was ISIL bringing attention to itself, telling the world it hasn't gone away, just awaiting opportunity to act. The U.S.-led raid on the town of Atme saw a small group of U.S commandos arrive by helicopter backed by helicopter gunships, armed drones and jets surrounding the house in the province of Idlib, near the Turkish border. 

The residents of the building's first floor responded to the call to exit the premises. And there was additional drama when a helicopter had to be blown up on the ground as a result of mechanical problems. The inactivated helicopter would not be left to ISIL. Unlike the thousands of military trucks, warplanes, munitions left for the Taliban. Interestingly, Moscow responded to a U.S. request to keep its forces away from the area since as an ally of Syria, Russia maintains troops there.