Senior Islamic State leaders in Syria are coming under fire, part of what appears to be an urgent campaign to gut the terror group’s brain trust.The U.S.-allied Syrian Democratic Forces — credited with playing a key role in taking out IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and IS spokesman Abu Hassan al-Muhajir — said Wednesday it had carried out a series of raids aimed at getting the terror group’s key players dead or alive.”Another successful raid targeting & arresting senior ISIS members,” SDF spokesman Mustafa Bali tweeted late Monday, using an acronym for the terror group which is also known as IS or by its Arabic acronym, Daesh. Another successful raid targeting&arresting senior ISIS members.— Mustafa Bali (@mustefabali) Earlier Monday, U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper lauded the U.S. raid that killed Baghdadi as a “devastating blow for the remnants of ISIS” and promised that the U.S. would continue to be in close contact with the SDF.”Baghdadi’s death will not rid the world of terrorism or end the ongoing conflict in Syria,” Esper said while briefing reporters. “But it will certainly send a message to those who would question America’s resolve.”U.S., SDF relationsRelations between the U.S. and the mainly Kurdish SDF have been strained since U.S. President Donald Trump ordered U.S. Special Forces to withdraw from parts of northeastern Syria earlier this month. Once the U.S. troops began to vacate key outposts near the Syrian-Turkish border, Turkey launched an assault targeting the Kurds, many of whom it views as terrorists with links to groups inside Turkey.But SDF officials Monday said that cooperation with the U.S. in the weeks and months leading up to the raid on Baghdadi’s compound in Idlib province had been intense, though the Turkish incursion caused the operation to be delayed by more than a month.”We want to make sure SDF does have access to the resources in order to guard the prisons, in order to arm their own troops, in order to assist us with the defeat ISIS mission,” Esper said.During a visit to Chicago for a police chiefs convention Monday, Trump said the oil fields in Syria were worth $45 million a month in revenue, and the U.S. plans to keep them.U.S. officials, though, were unable to explain how that would work.”We’re just beginning to look at specifics of this,” the senior State Department official said.The president Monday also celebrated the death of the IS leader, calling Baghdadi, “a sick and depraved man and now he’s dead.””He’s dead, he’s dead as a doornail, and he didn’t die bravely I can tell you that,” Trump said.Steve Herman and Ken Bredemeier contributed to this report.
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