U.S. special forces carried out a large-scale raid in a terrorist hot spot in northwestern Syria overnight.
President Biden says the overnight raid by U.S. forces has killed a top Islamic State leader who had found safe haven in the Idlib region.
In a statement, the president said, “Thanks to the skill and bravery of our armed forces” the ISIS terrorist known as Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi was “taken off the battlefield.”
The counterterrorism raid reportedly involved U.S. forces flying in by helicopter to surround a house near the Turkish border. After a two-hour standoff, fighting broke out with rocket-propelled grenades and gunfire erupting from the house.
At one point an explosion rocked the structure. An American military official said the blast came from inside the house.
An anonymous U.S. official also said one of the helicopters in the raid suffered a mechanical problem and had to be blown up on the ground.
An eyewitness who went to the area after the battle saw a woman who had apparently detonated an explosive vest inside the building. Thirteen people, including women and children, reportedly died.
Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby said the mission was a success with “no U.S. casualties.”
It was the largest raid in the province since President Trump ordered the 2019 U.S. assault targeting the Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
The covert operation came as the Islamic State had been regrouping and carrying out some of its biggest attacks since its regional stronghold was crushed in 2019.
ISIS has launched a series of attacks in recent days, including a 10-day assault to seize a prison in northeastern Syria. AP reports, “A U.S.-backed Kurdish-led force said more than 120 of their fighters and prison workers died in the effort to thwart the IS plot, whose goal appeared to free senior IS operatives from the prison. The prison houses at least 3,000 Islamic State group detainees.”
HD Editor’s Note: Why Is This News Biblically Relevant?
Those who understand Bible Prophecy have a special eye of attention on Syria and its capital city Damascus. In Isaiah chapter 17 we read about a future event that will cause Damascus, the world’s longest continually inhabited city, to become a “ruinous heap.”
Isaiah 17:1 KJV – “The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.”
Although we are not told how this will happen or by whom, Syria has become a hotbed of activity for terror organizations, and Iran, which has routinely stockpiled weaponry to use against the Jewish state in Damascus.
Syria also has special Biblical significance because of its geographical positioning in relation to Israel. Ezekiel 38 speaks of a future war in which Turkey, Iran, and other nations, led by Russia, attempt an invasion of Israel.
Ezekiel 38:15-16 KJV – “thou shalt come from thy place out of the north parts, thou, and many people with thee, all of them riding upon horses, a great company, and a mighty army: And thou shalt come up against my people of Israel, as a cloud to cover the land; it shall be in the latter days…”
Currently, we are seeing Russia, Iran, and Turkey operating to the north of Israel in Syria and cooperating together like never before.
In Matthew 24, the disciples ask Jesus, “What shall be the sign of thy coming?” Jesus’s response is a detailed description of the condition of the world and what it will look like in the last days before His return. Wars and rumours of wars, nation rising against nation, famines, pestilences, earthquakes, these being the beginning of sorrows.
In Luke 21:25, Jesus describes that “upon the earth” there will be “Distress of Nations with Perplexity.“
These things will be greatly increased and primarily take place during the seven-year Tribulation (from which the church is absent). However, with the current global state of turmoil amongst the nations, we can’t help but recognize the distress of nations Jesus describes in Luke 21 and Matthew 24, rising in our world today.
