SULAIMANI (ESTA) — At least six children were killed in the border town in northwest of Syria where U.S. special forces carried out a counter-terrorism mission, UNICEF said on Thursday.
U.S. special forces conducted a counter-terrorism mission in the village of Atmeh near the Turkish border, an area dotted with camps for internally displaced people from Syria’s civil war.
U.S. President Joe Biden announced earlier that Islamic State (ISIS) leader Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi was killed during the raid.
UNICEF confirmed in a statement that “at least six children were killed and one girl was badly injured overnight in the border town of Atmeh in the northwest of Syria due to heavy violence.”
“According to reports, civilian-populated areas were severely damaged,” it said.
It was the largest raid in the province since the 2019 U.S. assault targeting the ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Idlib is broadly controlled by Turkey-backed fighters, but is also an Al-Qaida stronghold and home to several of its top operatives. Other militants have also found refuge in the region.
