Inside US raid on IS chief in Atmeh: Quraishi blew up himself, family; 13 killed

The White House said Quraishi was using the nearby families as a shield. One of the difficulties of the US operation was Quraishi rarely came out of the third floor of the building, US officials said.

As US forces raided the hideout of IS chief Abu Ibrahim al-Hashemi al-Quraishi, the man who took over as the head of the terrorist group in 2019, the IS leader detonated a bomb and blew himself up. His body was thrown onto the streets outside. First responders reported that 13 people had been killed, including six children and four women.

A building destroyed in the aftermath of a counter-terrorism mission conducted by the US Special Operations Forces is seen in Atmeh, Syria. (VIA REUTERS)

The preparation for the operation which has been termed as "incredibly complex" started by early December. According to US officials, the operation to kill Qurashi could have been executed last year, but Biden chose the riskier course to minimise collateral damage.

The helicopter operation had been repeatedly rehearsed and the possibility that he would kill himself was also taken into consideration. Early this week, Biden was briefed on the final blueprint of the operation and he gave the go-ahead.

The explosion that the IS chief caused was on the third floor. US forces said they evacuated six civilians, including four children, from the first floor.

Quraishi was known as 'Destroyer' because of his brutal operations. Born in a Turkment family, he was the rare non-Arab leader of the IS. He had served in the Iraqi army under Saddam Hussein.

Though US troops zeroed in on the building and the floor that he was staying in, he never came out of the building's third floor and all his communication with the outside world was through couriers.

As the operation began, Biden said, "God bless our troops' and kept a tab real-time monitoring of the troops. When the operation began, Biden was finishing a call with French President Macron on a different subject, a White House official said. Pentagon said at one point, a helicopter involved in the raid suffered a mechanical failure and had to be destroyed rather than left behind.

(With agency inputs)