ATMEH, Syria (AP) — U. S. special forces are being used to protect themselves. The U. S. carried out what the Pentagon called a large-scale counterterrorism raid in northwestern Syria early Thursday. Rescuers at the scene reported that thirteen other people were killed, in addition to six children and four women.

The operation, which citizens say lasted more than two hours, rocked the quiet village of Atmeh near the Turkish border, an area dotted with camps for people displaced in Syria’s internal civil war. The purpose of the raid is unclear.

“The project was a success,” Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said in a brief statement. “There were no American casualties. More data will be provided as it becomes available. “

A project reporter for the Associated Press and several citizens said they saw fragments of frames scattered near the raid, a house in Syria’s rebel-held Idlib province. Most citizens spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals and said the raid concerned helicopters, explosions and gunfire.

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It’s the largest incursion into the province since the Trump-era U. S. attack in 2019 that killed Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Idlib is largely controlled by Turkish-backed fighters, but it is also a stronghold of al-Qaeda and home to several of its most sensible operatives. Other activists have also sought safe haven in the area.

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The most sensitive terrain of the two-story house, surrounded by olive trees, almost completely destroyed, with the roof and walls torn down.

Blood can only be seen on the walls and floor of the remaining structure, which contained a destroyed chamber with a wooden children’s cot on the ground. On a broken wall, still hangs a blue plastic swing for children. The kitchen was blackened by the fire.

The opposition-led Syrian Civil Defense, the first responders also known as white helmets, said thirteen other people were killed in the shelling and clashes that followed the U. S. command’s incursion. Among them, six children and four women, he added.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war observer, also said the attack killed thirteen people, adding four young men and two women. Ahmad Rahhal, a citizen journalist who visited the site, reported seeing 12 bodies.

The Pentagon did not provide any main points about who was the target of the raid, or whether fighters or civilians on the floor were killed or injured.

Residents and activists described witnessing a major assault on the floor, with loudspeakers from U. S. forces urging women and youth to leave the area.

Omar Saleh, a local resident, said the doors and windows of his house began to vibrate with the sound of low-flying planes at 1:10 am local time. He then overheard a man speaking Arabic to an Iraqi or Saudi accessory through a telephone. loudspeaker, urging women to leave or leave the area.

“It lasted forty-five minutes. There was no response. Then the fire from the device broke out,” Saleh said. He said the shooting continued for two hours, as planes flew over the area.

Others reported hearing at least one primary explosion during the operation. A U. S. official said one of the helicopters in the attack suffered a mechanical problem and should have exploded on the ground. The U. S. official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the main points. of the army’s operation.

The Observatory said helicopters of U. S. -led coalition troops landed in the domain and attacked a house. He said the force clashed with fighters on the ground. Taher al-Omar, an Activist based in Idlib, also said he witnessed clashes between fighters and U. S. forces. .

The army’s operation drew attention on social media, with tweets from the domain describing helicopters firing around the construction site near Atmeh. Flight tracking knowledge also reported that several drones were surrounding the town of Sarmada and the village of Salwah, just north of the raid. place.

The United States has used drones in the afterlife to kill the most sensible al-Qaeda operatives in Idlib, which at one time hosted the largest concentration of the group’s leaders since Osama bin Laden’s time in Afghanistan. The fact that the special forces landed on the ground suggests that the target thought of a height value.

An attack in Pakistan in 2011 killed bin Laden.

Thursday’s sting operation came as the Islamic State organization reasserted itself in Syria and Iraq, carrying out some of its biggest attacks since its defeat in 2019. In recent weeks and months, the organization has introduced a number of operations in the region, adding a 10-day attack expired last month on a criminal in northeastern Syria.

A U. S. -backed Kurdish-led force said more than 120 of its fighters and criminal workers had been killed in an effort to thwart the Islamic State plot, which aimed to give the impression of freeing senior Islamic State officials from criminals. The criminal houses at least 3,000 detainees of the ISIS organization.

The criminal tried to escape the extremist group’s largest military operation since the defeat of IS and the dispersal of members in shelters in 2019. The U. S. -led coalition hand in Kurdish forces.

At a press conference on Monday, a senior SDF official Nowruz Ahmad said the criminal attack component of a broader plot that ISIS had been preparing for a long time, adding attacks in other neighborhoods of Hassakeh, Shaddada and areas of Deir el-Zour in the east of the country. Syria and the al-Hol camp in the south, which is home to thousands of families of IS members.

The U. S. -led coalition has targeted high-level militants several times in recent years, aiming to disrupt what U. S. officials see as a secret motive known as the Khorasan organization planning outdoor attacks. A U. S. airstrike killed the second al-Qaeda member. -in command, former assistant to bin Laden Abu al-Kheir al-Masri, in Syria in 2017.

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Baldor reported from Washington, D. C. and Mroue from Beirut.