Biden says IS leader killed, removing 'major terrorist' threat

President Joe Biden said that a "terrorist threat to the world" was removed when the head of the Islamic State blew himself up, as US special forces swooped on his Syrian hideout in an "incredibly challenging" nighttime helicopter raid.

Biden said he had ordered an assault by troops rather than an air strike in order to minimise civilian casualties, even though this meant "much greater risk to our own people." There were no US casualties.

The death of Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi is the biggest setback to the IS jihadist group since his predecessor, the better-known Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was killed in a US commando raid in the same Syrian region of Idlib in 2019.

"Last night's operation took a major terrorist leader off the battlefield and sent a strong message to terrorists around the world: we will come after you and find you," Biden said in a brief, somber address from the White House's Roosevelt Room.

Biden said the house targeted overnight in the town of Atme contained "families, including children."

"As our troops approached to capture the terrorist, in a final act of desperate cowardice, with no regard to the lives of his own family or others in the building, he chose to blow himself up," Biden said.

Qurashi detonated the entire top floor, Biden said, "taking several members of his family with him."

General Kenneth McKenzie, head of US Central Command, said later that Qurashi "did not fight" the US soldiers, but set off the explosive "as we attempted to call for his surrender."

The three-level building of raw cinder blocks bore the scars of an intense battle, with torn window frames, charred ceilings and a partly collapsed roof, a correspondent said. Inside, they saw a simple room with little more than foam mattresses, blankets, colourful clothes and children's toys.

The US government had offered a $10 million reward for information leading to Qurashi, who was an Iraqi also known as Amir Mohammed Said Abd al-Rahman al-Mawla.