A US commando attack in Syrian territory killed a top-level al Qaeda coordinator who supplied a pipeline of foreign fighters, weapons and cash into Iraq, officials revealed yesterday.
According to Fox News, Abu Ghadiyain, a senior al Qaeda operative, was the target of the attack by special operations forces, which launched a raid several miles inside Syria’s eastern border Sunday.
Officials said Ghadiyain was closely associated with the terrorist group’s leader in Iraq and supplied much of the firepower and cash that came into the country.
“The operation was successful,” a US official said of the raid. “He is believed to have been killed. He was in the compound.”
The Syrian raid came just days after the commander of US forces in western Iraq said troops were redoubling efforts to secure the border, which he called an “uncontrolled” gateway for fighters entering Iraq.
“We are taking matters into our own hands,” a US military official in Washington told the AP.
Although the flow of foreign fighters from Syria to Iraq has been declining in recent months, the US military has been unable to shut down the network because Syria has been out of its reach.
A report from the scene said a village was attacked by four helicopters, two of which landed. A witness said all the people killed were shot by soldiers who exited the helicopters.
A village resident said US forces grabbed two men and took them away by helicopter.
White House spokeswoman Dana Perino refused to confirm, or even discuss, the attack.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack also refused to comment yesterday.
“I can’t comment on any specifics or specific operations,” McCormack said. “I can say that this is – it’s a tough fight. Certainly, a tough, ideological struggle – fight with violent extremists.”
The Syrian raid was similar to an attack launched last month against forces in Pakistan.
On Sept. 3, US special forces conducted a raid to curtail the use of Pakistan’s northwestern tribal areas as a safe haven for militants. Leaders in both Syria and Pakistan denounced the attacks.
Syria called Sunday’s raid a “serious aggression,” and its Foreign Ministry summoned diplomats of the United States and Iraq in protest.