US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced that a raid by US forces killed a “senior ISIS [Islamic State] member” in Atmeh in northwest Syria’s Idlib province on August 19. “Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve [CJTF-OIR] will continue to build partner capacities and ensure security and stability within the region. We ensure the enduring defeat of ISIS,” the US-led anti-Islamic State coalition, said in the wake of the raid.
The operation targeted an Islamic State official who was considered a “key financier who planned attacks in Syria and Iraq. He had relationships throughout the ISIS network in the region, posing a direct threat to US and Coalition forces and the new Syrian Government,” according to CENTCOM. “We will continue to pursue ISIS terrorists with unwavering determination, throughout the region,” added Admiral Brad Cooper, the head of CENTCOM.
Initial reports, including from the Associated Press (AP), said that the operation had led to the capture of “Abu Hafs al-Qurayshi, an Iraqi citizen and IS commander,” who the group may have named as its “supreme leader” two years ago. The AP ascribed the claim of this capture to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, saying that another Iraqi citizen was also killed in the operation. Other reports, such as by Arab News, relied on these early claims about taking Qurayshi alive. However, CENTCOM’s statement did not mention capturing anyone, nor did it specify the name of the target of the raid or that he was the Islamic State’s top commander.
Syrian officials offered separate information about the targeted individual’s identity. “Syrian state TV on Wednesday quoted an unnamed security official as saying the Iraqi man targeted in the operation is known as Ali, adding that his real name is Salah Noman. It said Noman was living in an apartment with his wife, son and mother. It said he was killed in the raid,” Arab News reported.
In February 2022, the Pentagon announced that former Islamic State leader Abu Ibrahim al Hashimi al Qurayshi had been killed in a raid that also took place in Atmeh, Syria. Importantly, as Arab News notes, “Al-Qurayshi is not the real name of Daesh leaders but comes from Quraish, the name of the tribe to which Islam’s Prophet Muhammad belonged. Daesh claims its leaders hail from the tribe, and ‘al-Qurayshi’ is part of their nom de guerre.”
In 2022, the Pentagon said that Abu Ibrahim al Hashimi al Qurayshi had killed himself and others as the operation unfolded. “An ISIS deputy and some of al-Qurayshi’s family members were reportedly killed when al-Qurayshi detonated the explosive device,” a US Department of Defense statement said. Abu Ibrahim al Hashimi al Qurayshi had become the head of the Islamic State in 2019 after the death of Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, who was killed in a US raid in Idlib.
Atmeh is around a 15-mile drive from Barisha, where Baghdadi was killed. The area has historically been controlled by Hayat Tahrir al Sham, the group that led the offensive that toppled the Bashar al Assad regime in December 2024 and has formed the backbone of a government in Damascus. Ahmed al Sharaa, the head of HTS, became the transitional president of Syria after the regime’s fall. Atmeh is also very close to an area controlled by the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army, another prominent rebel group. Several key Islamic State leaders have sought refuge in this area of northwest Syria near the Turkish border.
The US-led effort against the Islamic State is undergoing changes in Syria and Iraq as the leadership in Damascus transitions, and the US military shifts its forces and its mission in Iraq to a bilateral security arrangement. On July 22, Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve completed an annual transfer of command to US Army Brigadier General Kevin J. Lambert.
On July 25, Central Command said that its forces had “conducted a raid resulting in the death of senior ISIS Leader, Dhiya’ Zawba Muslih al-Hardani, and his two adult ISIS-affiliated sons, Abdallah Dhiya al-Hardani and Abd al-Rahman Dhiya Zawba al-Hardani.” The raid took place in Al Bab governorate near Aleppo in an area apparently controlled by the Turkish-backed SNA. The US has also continued to train with anti-Islamic State partner forces, including the Syrian Democratic Forces in eastern Syria and the Syrian Free Army in Tanf in southern Syria.
