Counterterrorism raid in syria, and it killed the leader of isis. the white house released this photo from the situation room, the president is set to deliver remarks at any moment. joining us now is cnn national security analyst peter bergen. he s the author of many books including the rise and fall of osama bin laden. can you put this into context for us? the elimination of al qurayshi and what this means. i m not sure it means a huge amount to be honest. al qurayshi, the leader of isis just killed, was virtually unknown. his last name indicates he at least claims to be a descendant of the prophet muhammad, an important thing for isis to have a leader who makes that claim. he made almost no public statements. he did not have some charismatic presence like osama bin laden or even abu bakr al baghdadi, who was killed in 2019. i m sure they ll find somebody to replace him.
Into, once again, another critical week with really high tensions. jasmine, i also want to ask you about president biden planning to visit israel later this year after a phone call on sunday with the israeli prime minister naftali bennett. how does the u.s. counterterrorism raid in syria last week play out between the two countries? how does that factor in? reporter: well, that s just something we are going to have to wait and see. look, this is the highest profile killing of an isis leader that has happened during president biden s tenure and obviously prime minister bennett s tenure. they are both relatively new in this office. i want to read you a statement the israeli government put out after the phone call, congratulating biden. they said the world is now a safer place thanks to the courageous operation of the u.s. forces. so this is going to be something that a relationship that really grows in this area and, of course, israeli prime minister bennett has invited president b
Confront bigotry, that s your reality check. a very needed one, john, thank you. new day continues right now. this is cnn breaking news. very good morning to our viewers here in the u.s. and around the world, it is thursday, february 3rd, and breaking just moments ago, president biden confirming that the united states carried out a counterterrorism raid in syria, that has killed the leader of isis. so this is the first video that we are seeing of this operation. it is just in to cnn. and these are the first images from the scene showing some of the aftermath of this mission. the pentagon so far not saying much about this, except that it was in their words successful. the u.s. targeted al qaeda and its affiliates in the idlib province before. syrian defense forces say this operation killed 13 people
This is cnn breaking news. a very good thursday morning to you. it is a busy news morning. i m jim sciutto. i m bianna golodryga. we begin this hour with breaking news. the leader of isis is dead. this following an overnight counterterrorism raid conducted by u.s. special forces in northwest syria. the syrian civil defense group says at least 13 people were killed, including 6 children and 4 women. it was the largest such operation the u.s. has conducted since the previous isis leader abu bakr al baghdadi was killed in 2019. these are dangerous operations. at this point we re told all u.s. personnel involved returned safely. president biden is expected to