American forces on Sunday killed two ISIS militants in eastern Syria in a helicopter raid, US Central Command said in a statement.
ISIS sleeper calls continue to carry out deadly attacks in Syria and Iraq. For a few years, the group ruled swathes of both countries but lost its last stronghold in 2019.
The US Central Command did not specify the location of the overnight operation, and claimed there were no civilian casualties in its initial assessments of the operation.
The statement described one of the two targeted ISIS leaders, Anas, as an “ISIS Syria Province official” involved in plotting attacks in eastern Syria.
“ISIS continues to represent a threat to the security and stability of the region,” CENTCOM spokesman Joe Buccino said in the statement. “The death of these ISIS officials will disrupt the terrorist organization’s ability to further plot and carry out destabilizing attacks in the Middle East.”
Kurdish forces also took part in the raid in the village of Al-Zer in eastern Deir Ezzor, said the UK-based war monitor group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The militants refused to turn themselves in before US helicopters fired at the house they were in, it added.
There are some 900 US forces in Syria supporting the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in the fight against ISIS. They have frequently targeted ISIS militants mostly in parts of northeastern Syria under Kurdish control.
On Nov. 30, IS announced that leader Abu al-Hassan al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi was killed in battle. The US said al-Qurayshi was killed in an operation conducted by opposition forces in the southern city of Daraa.
US troops and Kurdish fighters resumed joint patrols in northeastern Syria after a temporary halt following a series of Turkish airstrikes against Kurdish-led forces.
