United States Special Forces carried out a major raid in northwest Syria in the early hours of Thursday morning, reportedly killing more than a dozen people—including six children and four women. US troops raided a village in the Idlib province of Syria, with witnesses reporting civilian casualties amid a gun battle. The Pentagon called the operation “successful” but did not specify the target or mention reports of civilians killed.
Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby said in a brief statement that U.S. forces “conducted a counterterrorism mission” but did not specify the target of the raid.
Kirby made no mention of the reported civilian deaths, saying only that “there were no U.S. casualties.” The Pentagon is notorious for underreporting or covering up civilian casualties in U.S.-led military actions.
While the official details of the operation remain murky, local residents, first responders, and journalists on the ground described a large-scale raid that included helicopters and F-16 warplanes, which bombed and shelled the area ahead of the airdrop raid.
الطيران المروحي التابع للتحالف الدولي يستهدف بالرشاشات الثقيلة محيط منطقة الانزال الجوي في #أطمة شمال #إدلب pic.twitter.com/tEsAVboTZ4
— أحمد رحال Ahmed Rahhal (@pressrahhal) February 2, 2022
Graphic photos and witness accounts from the scene indicate significant carnage, with blood covering the floors and walls of a building that appeared to be a main target of the operation. Images also showed U.S.-made explosive devices scattered near the scene, including one from the Colorado-based Ensign-Bickford Aerospace & Defense Company.
The Associated Press reported that the targeted building “contained a wrecked bedroom with a child’s wooden crib on the floor.”
“On one damaged wall, a blue plastic swing for children was still hanging,” the outlet observed. “The kitchen was blackened with fire damage.”
A ‘counterterrorism mission’ in the Idlib province is said to have involved a massive gun battle media reported.
The US military has confirmed it conducted a counterterrorism operation in northwestern Syria. Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby was short on details, calling the mission a success and saying the American troops suffered no casualties. Sources on the ground described a large gun battle to the media, and said some civilians were killed.
The US raid targeted a house in the village of Atmeh in Syria’s Idlib province near the border with Turkey, the Associated Press said, citing local sources. The operation involved helicopters, explosions, and machine gun fire, residents told the agency on condition of anonymity.
The US did not immediately offer a casualty count for non-US parties. A local reporter cited by AP said he saw at least 12 dead bodies at the site. The same figure was cited by Al Jazeera sources, which said the fatalities included seven children and three women. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights cited its sources as saying that at least nine people were killed, including two children and a woman.
Witnesses cited by AP and Al Jazeera said the assault was the largest by US forces in Idlib since the October 2019 operation to kill Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, then-leader of the terrorist group Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS).
An AP source in the Pentagon said the US lost at least one helicopter during the mission. The aircraft malfunctioned and had to be destroyed by exploding it to keep it out of the hands of the militants.
Idlib remains one of the few areas of Syria not under government control. The region is dominated by various jihadist forces and was protected by the Turkish government from a takeover by Damascus. Ankara cited concerns over civilian casualties and a surge of refugees in case of a military operation to retake the city of Idlib.
The US did not disclose who the Wednesday evening operation targeted. Washington maintains a military presence in Syria, claiming it is necessary to keep IS from resurging.
It also backs the predominantly Kurdish forces in northeastern Syria to deny Damascus control over that part of the country. Washington has imposed harsh sanctions against the Syrian government, hindering reconstruction efforts.