On Friday, the White House announced that four U.S. soldiers and one of the working dogs were injured in a helicopter raid in Syria that killed a senior ISIS leader. John Kirby, National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications, told reporters the soldiers and dog were in stable condition and being treated at a U.S. medical facility in Iraq.
The raid was conducted by the U.S. military and Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance led by Kurdish fighters that has been fighting ISIS in Syria’s north. The deceased ISIS leader, Hamza al-Homsi, was overseeing an ISIS network in eastern Syria.
The U.S. military has killed two ISIS leaders in Syria in recent years. In October 2022, Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi killed himself during a U.S. raid in northwest Syria. After his death, ISIS named Abu al-Husain al-Husaini al-Quraishi as their new top leader on November 30, 2022.
Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.