People living next to ISIS leader in Syria had no idea who he was until US troops arrived to kill him, reports say

• The neighbors of the ISIS leader killed by US forces seemed unaware of his status, reports say.
• Women and children often used the building and there was nothing unusual about the men, locals said.

People living in the Syrian village where the US tracked down and killed Abu Ibrahim Al-Qurayshi had no idea they were neighbors with a terrorist leader, according to reports.

President Joe Biden announced Thursday that Al-Qurayshi had been killed in a raid led by US forces in the northwest Syrian village of Atmeh.

The US was aware of civilian families living in the building Al-Qurayshi occupied thanks to months of advance surveillance, The Washington Post reported.

The Associated Press, citing unnamed US officials, said the three-floor building had different sets of residents.

The civilian family was on the first floor, per the AP, with a lower-ranking ISIS figure on the second.

Al-Qurayshi and his family were on the third, it said. The officials said he kept an extremely low profile and rarely went outside other than to pray on the roof.

A mechanic named Mahmoud al-Sheikh, who lives nearby, also told the Post that he didn't know who lived in the house. He saw women and young children entering and leaving, he said.

The men living there did not particularly stand out, or match the stereotype of bearded Islamist fighters, he told the paper.

When US forces arrived, they shouted to alert locals and persuade them to leave, Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby said in a Thursday briefing.

They convinced 10 people on the first and second floors, including eight children, to leave the building, Kirby said.

Kirby said that Qurayshi's lieutenant, the lieutenant's wife, and their child on the second floor were killed when the adults engaged US forces.

White House Press Secretary Jenn Psaki said that, in a "final desperate act of cowardice," Qurayshi detonated an explosive around his wife and two children, killing all of them.

The Associated Press, citing first responders had a different death toll for the raid, saying that 13 people had been killed. Six of those were children and four were women, the AP said.

The reported civilian deaths prompted tense questioning from reporters on Thursday.

Kirby said that the Pentagon was willing to review the action to see if US forces caused further civilian deaths.