TEHRAN — On Thursday, President Joe Biden announced that the U.S. troops have conducted a military operation in northwest Syria, which led to the killing of Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, the so-called new Daesh leader.

As Biden and his staff were expecting a round of standing ovation for the “heroic” operation, the more details come out, it is becoming more obvious that Biden is carbon copying his friend and former boss, Barack Obama, when he announced in May 2011 that the U.S. Special Force terminated Osama Bin Laden.

“Last night at my direction, U.S. military forces in the northwest Syria successfully undertook a counterterrorism operation to protect the American people and our Allies, and make the world a safer place. Thanks to the skill and bravery of our Armed Forces, we have taken off the battlefield Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi—the leader of ISIS. All Americans have returned safely from the operation. I will deliver remarks to the American people later this morning. May God protect our troops,” Biden said according to a White House statement released on Thursday.

CNN reported on Friday that the operation was planned months before.

“…after months of planning…, which included the (making of) model of the building housing the top ISIS leader (the model was) brought by military leaders into the Situation Room in December. He (Biden) engaged in a "constant give and take" with his military commanders,” CNN claimed. 

The report added that it was months ago that the U.S. had learned the Daesh leader was living there, running his terror operation through the network of couriers. When Biden was briefed by operational commanders in December, he ordered the Pentagon to take precautions to minimize civilian deaths -- a difficult proposition for a target who appeared to intentionally surround himself with children and families as protection.

As the report goes on, we become more and more aware that this is nothing but a psycho-op, and a propaganda operation. It doesn’t seem far-fetched at all to expect another “Zero Dark Thirty” conquering Hollywood in the coming months. 

“Thanks to the bravery of our troops, this horrible terrorist leader is no more,” Biden said. “Knowing that terrorist had chosen to surround himself with families, including children, we made a choice to pursue a Special Forces raid at a much a greater risk to our own people rather than targeting him with an airstrike.”

According to CNN, five days before Christmas, Biden sat down with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, the commander of U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), Gen. Frank McKenzie, and others to work through in painstaking detail how an operation to capture Qurayshi would work and what risks it would entail. The operation was fraught with risk because of the civilians who occupied the same building as the Daesh leader.

Al-Qurayshi died in the village of Atme, just 14 kilometers away from where his predecessor, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was killed during a similar U.S. raid in October 2019.
Daesh founder Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed in Barisha, Syria – 5 kilometers away from the Turkish border. Both areas are controlled by pro-Turkish rebels, which the U.S. had previously armed.

At least a dozen people, including six children, were killed along with Qurayshi, according to local first responders. The Pentagon said that three members of his family were killed when Qurayshi detonated an explosive device on the top floor of the building, along with a child who was killed on the floor below in circumstances that remained unclear.
Without reference to the raid, UNICEF confirmed at least six children were killed in Atme overnight.

Department of Defense spokesperson John Kirby said late on Thursday that the Pentagon is willing to review the raid in Syria to make sure U.S. forces did not cause civilians deaths.

Kirby added the Pentagon has “strong, strong indications” that civilian deaths in the raid were not caused by U.S. forces.

This is the second raid conducted in Biden’s tenure that has involved the death of the civilians. 

In an August 29 drone strike in Kabul, ten people were killed, including seven children. 

The Pentagon defended the strike at first, claiming it had killed an ISIS-K operative planning an imminent attack on U.S. forces during the final days of the evacuation U.S. troops from Afghanistan. 

Approximately three weeks after the strike, the military acknowledged it was a tragic mistake that had killed 10 innocent civilians. A subsequent Air Force review of the circumstances around the strike found “no violation of law, including the law of war.”

It is important to note that in August 2016, Donald Trump claimed that Barack Obama “is the founder of ISIS,” along with Hillary Clinton. Then he repeated it over and over again.

“ISIS is honoring President Obama,” Trump said at a Florida rally. 

“He is the founder of ISIS. He is the founder of ISIS. He’s the founder. He founded ISIS, and I would say the co-founder would be crooked Hillary Clinton.”

A propaganda operation like that was highly needed so that Biden would restore his reputation among the American people. His rating is now standing at 41%.

The national poll, conducted Feb. 2-3, found that 41% of U.S. adults approved of Biden's performance in office, while 56% disapproved and the rest were not sure. The prior week's poll had put Biden at a 45% approval rating and 50% disapproval.

Democrats are increasingly worried that dissatisfaction with Biden's presidency could cost them their congressional majorities. If Republicans take control of either the U.S. House of Representatives or Senate, Biden's legislative agenda could be doomed.

Biden's popularity remains above the lowest levels seen by his predecessor, Donald Trump, whose approval rating sank to as low as 33% in December 2017. 

At such critical conditions, Biden sought to pull a page out of Obama’s playbook: play the “propaganda operation” card, and pray to God that the Americans would be fooled.