Democrats mostly praise Biden on Syria strike – but Squad members are initially slow to comment

‘We will want to know exactly what happened in the full situation and including the casualties’

Democrats mostly praised President Joe Biden after he announced that US forces conducted a counterterrorism operation that killed Isis leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi.

Mr Biden made the announcement in the morning, noting how the United States forces chose to conduct a special forces raid rather than an airstrike to kill Qurayshi. He also noted how Qurayshi was the mastermind behind the Yazidi genocide in Northern Iraq in 2014.

Rep Andy Kim, a Democrat from New Jersey who worked as a national security adviser, said he had been following Qurayshi since he worked in the Obama administration.

“This is a person that I’ve been tracking for eight years now,” he said, adding how the terror leader was responsible for sending Yazidi girls into sex slavery to be raped. “Just the amount of war crimes and atrocities, he has to be up there at the top of the list in this world right now.”

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff told The Independent that he was glad that the leader of Isis was taken off the battlefield.

“I think he posed a real danger to the US and to Americans around the world, so I congratulate the military on a successful operation and I’m glad that all of our service members returned safely.”

The move comes months after many Democrats and Republicans criticised the administration’s exit from the War in Afghanistan, which resulted in the country falling rapidly to the Taliban. During efforts to evacuate Americans and their allies, an attack left 13 US service members dead. Mr Biden’s approval rating took a significant hit in response.

Now, combined with his stance toward Russia as its president Vladimir Putin has amassed troops on the border with Ukraine, Mr Biden has an opportunity to re-establish his strength politically on foreign policy. Mr Biden was long seen as politically credible on foreign policy, having served as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Barack Obama, who had not served a full term in the Senate when ran for president, selected Mr Biden as his running mate in 2008 largely because of his expertise in foreign affairs.

Qurayshi succeeded Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi as leader of Isis after Mr Biden’s predecessor Donald Trump ordered the latter killed.

Rep Stephanie Murphy of Florida who is retiring after this year also praised the president’s actions.

“I think it’s good that we have another terrorist leader off of the field,” she told The Independent.

Mr Biden said in his address that Qurayshi chose to blow himself up instead of surrendering to US forces and that the explosion destroyed the third floor of the building, killing his family. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said that the Department of Defense would assess the raid. But one reporter asked about whether there will be evidence that Qurayshi detonated the explosive himself.

“Well, as you know, there's an extensive process that the Department of Defense undergoes,” Ms Psaki said. “The president made clear from the beginning, at every point in this process, that doing everything possible to avoid civilian casualties was his priority and his preference.”

The United States has not always been forthright about civilian casualties. After the attack in Kabul, the United States initially defended a drone attack but further investigation found that the information leading to the strike and what followed were incorrect and the strike killed as many as 10 civilians.

After that information about the faulty strike, Rep Ilhan Omar of Minnesota tweeted “Sorry’ isn’t enough” and called for accountability.

Initially, Ms Omar did not commit to a full answer when asked by The Independent about civilian casualties.

“Can I look into it and get back to you?” she asked. Later, Ms Omar tweeted a reference to the Afghanistan strike.

“All due respect, but this headline is from 4 months ago and came after weeks of the Pentagon accusing reporters who asked for evidence or provided follow up questions of doing PR for terrorists,” she tweeted. “It’s good that these questions are being asked and the WH needs to be transparent.”

Similarly, Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York did not comment on it.

“I just got out of a classified briefing,” she told The Independent, saying she did not want to send a message on the fly.

Ms Murphy said she would be asking about civilian casualties in the coming days.

“We will want to know exactly what happened in the full situation and including the casualties,” she said.

Mr Kim said he would look into civilian casualties as well.

“I’m always asking about that and then we’ve got to make sure we’re continuing to improve,” he said, noting how the fact the administration used a ground raid rather than an air strike showed the care the administration took.