Biden says ISIS leader blew himself up during US military raid in 'final act of desperate cowardice,' killing family members

• An ISIS leader detonated an explosive, killing himself and relatives, during a US raid, Biden said.
• Biden said he ordered the use of special forces over an airstrike to try to minimize casualties.

President Joe Biden on Thursday said that ISIS leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi blew himself up, killing himself and members of his family, as US forces moved in to capture him.

"As our troops approached to capture the terrorist, in a final act of desperate cowardice, with no regard for the lives of his own family or others in the building, he chose to blow himself up," Biden said at the White House in remarks on the operation. He added that al-Qurayshi chose "to blow up that third floor, rather than face justice."

The president said he directed the Department of Defense to take every possible precaution to help prevent civilian casualties.

"Knowing that this terrorist chose to surround himself with families, including children, we made a choice to pursue a special-forces raid at a much greater risk to our own people rather than targeting him with an airstrike," Biden said. "We made this choice to minimize civilian casualties."

"Thanks to the bravery of our troops, this horrible terrorist leader is no more," the president said.

The Biden administration has faced fierce criticism from lawmakers in Washington and human-rights groups over an August drone strike in Kabul, Afghanistan, that killed 10 civilians, including seven children.

Last week, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered the Pentagon to come up with plans to reduce civilian casualties from US operations.

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Syria Civil Defence, also known as the White Helmets, said in a statement that it had recovered the bodies of 13 people — including six children and four women — from the scene of the raid.

The White Helmets said the people were killed "in shelling and clashes following an airborne raid of US special forces."

The US Department of Defense called the mission successful and confirmed that there were no American casualties.

Al-Qurayshi's death comes less than three years after ISIS's previous leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, also blew himself up amid a US-led raid on a compound in Syria's Idlib province.

Al-Baghdadi was replaced by al-Qurayshi as the terror group's leader less than a week after his death.