By Peter Weber The Week

U.S. Special Operations forces conducted a large-scale counterterrorism raid on a two-story house in Syria’s northwest Idlib Province early Thursday, in pursuit of what one U.S. official told The New York Times was a “high value” target. The Pentagon gave only cursory details of the raid, near Atmeh, a town near the Turkish border. Local aid and monitoring groups said at least 13 bodies were recovered from the wreckage, including some women and children.

“The mission was successful,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said in a statement released early Thursday. “There were no U.S. casualties. More information will be provided as it becomes available.”

Residents of Atmeh said U.S. helicopters flew in low a little after 1 a.m. local time, and a man speaking Arabic said through a loudspeaker that the house was surrounded and women and children should evacuate. “This went on for 45 minutes,” nearby resident Omar Saleh told The Associated Press. “There was no response. Then the machine gun fire erupted.”

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