The Biden administration recently deployed military forces that killed 37 terrorists in Syria, including multiple senior leaders of ISIS and Hurras al-Din, an affiliate of al Qaeda, in the latest announced body count.
US Central Command commander Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla revealed that his forces had conducted several airstrikes in the region, with one on Tuesday killing senior Hurras al-Din official Marwan Bassam, the man overseeing the terror group’s operation in Syria.
The blast killed eight other operatives of the terror group, which US CENTCOM described as a terrorist cell “with global aspirations to conduct attacks against US and Western interests.”
U.S. forces also destroyed six Iranian-backed Houthi uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) in a area of Yemen controlled by the Shia Islamist military organization that emerged from civil war in the 1990s.
It was determined the UAVs threatened coalition forces and merchant vessels in the region.
The U.S. military today carried out multiple strikes against targets linked to Iran-aligned Houthi fighters in Yemen.
Military aircraft and warships bombed more than a dozen Houthi targets at roughly five locations, according to the officials.
Houthi media said seven strikes hit the airport in Hodeida, a major port city, and the Katheib area, which has a Houthi-controlled military base. Four more strikes hit the Seiyana area in Sanaa, the capital, and two strikes hit the Dhamar province. The Houthi media office also reported three air raids in Bayda province, southeast of Sanaa.
The strikes come just days after the Houthis threatened “escalating military operations” targeting Israel after they apparently shot down a U.S. military drone flying over Yemen. And just last week, the group claimed responsibility for an attack targeting American warships.
The Houthis have carried out nearly 100 attacks on ships crossing the Red Sea since November and say they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians in Israel’s year-long war in Gaza. They have sunk two vessels, seized another and killed at least four seafarers.
“These strikes against leadership and operatives of ISIS and the al Qaeda affiliate, Hurras al-Din, represent CENTCOM’s commitment to the enduring defeat of terrorist organizations in the CENTCOM area of responsibility and our support to regional stability,” said Kurilla, a native of Elk River, Minnesota who was commissioned from the United States Military Academy, West Point in 1988.
On Sept. 24, American forces conducted a targeted strike in northwest Syria, killing nine terrorist operatives, including Marwan Bassam ‘Abd-al-Ra’uf, a senior Hurras al-Din leader responsible for overseeing military operations from Syria.
The successful strike against Marwan Bassam ‘Abd-al-Ra’uf comes a month after a successful strike that killed another Hurras al-Din senior leader, Abu-‘Abd al-Rahman al Makki.
A Sept. 16 strike in central Syria targeted an ISIS training camp and killed at least 28 people, including four senior leaders, according to a Pentagon statement that did not identify them.
Anti-ISIS coalition forces have been targeted dozens of times with drones and rocket fire in both Iraq and Syria, as Israel’s brutal retaliatory war in Gaza since last year has made the Middle East more volatile.
U.S. forces have carried out multiple strikes against terrorist groups in both countries.
In August, U.S. forces killed another Hurras al-Din leader, Abu Abdul Rahman al-Makki, in a strike in Syria.
The U.S. military has around 900 troops in Syria as part of the international coalition against the Daesh terrorist group. The coalition was established in 2014 to help combat the armed group, which had taken over vast swaths of Iraq and Syria.
President Joe Biden nominated Kurilla to be the head of the military’s marquee combatant operations command responsible for prosecuting the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, to replace Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr., a Trump administration appointee whose tenure ended in 2022.
In February 2020, the Trump administration and the Taliban signed the United States–Taliban deal in Doha, Qatar, which stipulated fighting restrictions for both sides and promised the withdrawal of all NATO forces from Afghanistan by May 2021.
Following the deal, more than 10,000 American troops left the country and the US dramatically reduced the number of air attacks on the Taliban, leading to a defeat of the Afghan National Security Forces.
With only 2,500 US soldiers in Afghanistan when he came into the White House, Biden’s hands were tied by Trump’s surrender but he delayed the troop departure for several months, enabling the rescue of many Afghan allies who supported America during the longest war in US history.
Along with the attacks against the Syrian-based terrorist groups, CENTCOM officials are also focused on protecting US and commercial ships traveling along the Red Sea that have become prime targets for the Iran-backed Houthi terror group.
Iran launched a retaliatory missile barrage on Israeli military infrastructure in response to Israel’s killing of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah last week and Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in July.
The largely thwarted attack was seen by many as an attempt to restore the Islamic Republic’s capacity to deter further Israeli attacks on its allies but with Israel’s armed forces moving into southern Lebanon and the US government unflinching in its support of Benjamin Netanyahu’s administration, the warning seems to be falling on deaf ears.
Although Israel and its allies say they shot down most of the 180 or so missiles launched at airbases and other military targets, Iranian state media has said that the attack was the first to employ hypersonic missiles – which, if true, would represent a significant escalation from the Islamic Republic’s equally ineffectual drone and missile barrage in April.
Israel unleashed a series of heavy airstrikes overnight, targeting Beirut’s southern suburbs and severing the main border crossing between Lebanon and Syria.
Israel’s strikes followed a warning for residents in southern Lebanon to evacuate areas outside the U.N.-designated buffer zone, as the yearlong conflict with Hezbollah intensifies.
On Tuesday, Israeli forces launched a ground incursion into Lebanon, clashing Hezbollah members along a narrow border strip.
Earlier strikes killed key Hezbollah figures, including its longtime leader, Hassan Nasrallah.
The overnight blasts rocked Beirut’s southern suburbs, sending huge plumes of smoke and flames into the night sky, shaking buildings miles away in the Lebanese capital.
The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the intended target, and there was no immediate information on casualties.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported that there were more than 10 consecutive airstrikes in the area late Thursday.
The agency also reported that an Israeli airstrike led to the closure of the road near the busy Masnaa Border Crossing, from which tens of thousands of people fleeing the war in Lebanon have crossed into Syria over the past two weeks.
Biden also was asked Friday about the possibility of a diplomatic agreement coming together to halt conflict in the Middle East before the U.S. presidential election in November.
“No administration has helped Israel more than I have done,” Biden said. “None, none, none. And I think Bibi (Netanyahu) should remember that. And whether he’s trying to influence the election, I don’t know but I’m not counting on that.”
Israel’s military spokesperson Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani said Friday nine Israeli soldiers who died in “close quarters” fighting while 250 Hezbollah militants have been killed in Lebanon since the start of the ground incursion Monday.
Iran’s Foreign Minister is warning that if Israel carries out an attack on his country, Tehran will retaliate harshly.
“If the Israeli entity takes any step or measure against us, our retaliation will be stronger than the previous one,” said Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who made the comments Friday after meeting Lebanon’s Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri in Beirut.
The U.S. State Department says at least 350 American citizens, green card holders and family members have now left Lebanon on US-organized contract flights this week. German, Dutch, Japanese, French nationals and other Westerners have also been evacuated by their governments.