On Feb. 3rd, President Biden announced that a raid carried out by U.S. Special Operations Forces resulted in the death of the Islamic State’s leader, Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi. The raid was planned months ago when agency officials were tipped that ISIS’s top terrorist was hiding out in a house in northwest Syria.
“We made a choice to pursue a Special Forces raid, at a much greater risk to our own people, rather than targeting him with an airstrike,” Biden said. “We made this choice to minimize civilian casualties.”
Even though precautions were taken to minimize civilian deaths, members of al-Qurayshi’s family were killed when the terrorist detonated a bomb and killed 12 others upon the arrival of U.S. forces. Pentagon officials said that 10 civilians, including eight children, were safely evacuated, and plans were made to review whether the mission had harmed civilians.
The raid came days after U.S. forces backed Kurdish-led militia in a battle to regain control of a prison in northeastern Syria, after ISIS had taken over the prison and freed prisoners. This battle was the largest U.S. combat assault on the Islamic State since the end of the jihadi caliphate three years ago.
ISIS’s assault on Ghwaryan prison in the Syrian town of Hasakah on Jan. 20 was undoubtedly a sign that the Islamic State’s threats cannot be ignored. The assault’s goal was to free Islamic State leaders, of which there were about 3,000 suspected militants. By the time the Syrian forces recaptured the prison, 10 days after the initial attack, about 500 people had died.
This attack shows that the U.S.’s fight against terrorism is not ending anytime soon. Years of war with the Islamic State, which rose from the collapse of Syria during the civil war, have resulted in numerous deaths and economic losses. “The recent attack by ISIS,” former top Pentagon official and retired C.I.A. paramilitary operations officer Mick Mulroy said, “indicate that ISIS is not done fighting, nor is the U.S. or our partners.”
Commander of the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces General Mazloum Kobane Abdi was fearful of the recent resurgence of the Islamic State. “They want to renew ISIS,” the General had said. “They wanted to attack the prison, but after that, the plan was even bigger.”
Recent counterterrorism efforts have largely been defined by airstrikes and drone combat. The operation to execute al-Qurayshi involved two dozen helicopters and was monitored live from the White House’s Situation Room and was similar to raids conducted on Osama Bin Laden in 2011 and previous ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in 2019.
Though Biden’s approval of the attack was justified by intelligence concluding that al-Qurayshi was plotting the group’s comeback, there have been some disagreements about the attack. “The U.S. position is really a recipe for endless war,” professor at Rutgers University Adil Haque said. “The doctrine really allows for conflict that is endless in time and in space.”
Biden was able to carry out the attack due to the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF), which Congress passed to broaden the president’s powers and use of military force in the Middle East. However, this expansive authorization is seen as worrying by many. Luke Hatrig, former senior director for counterterrorism at the National Security Council, says the broad use of AUMF is troubling.
Even though the attack was a success, it might be time to revisit our approach to the War on Terror and revamp it to better fit today’s landscape. Innocent lives cannot continue to pay the price of war.
