The pre-dawn raid Thursday that led to the death of Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi was meant to take ISIS leader alive, according to Pentagon press secretary John Kirby.
Kirby, in an interview with Morning Edition hosts Steve Inskeep and Rachel Martin, said the U.S. operation in northern Syria against al-Qurayshi took two hours, more than twice the time U.S. forces needed to attack Osama bin Laden’s compound. That’s because, he said, there was an innocent family on the first floor of al-Qurayshi’s building.
“We wanted to make sure we could get them out safely,” he said.
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