battlefield and sent a strong message to terrorists around the world, we will come after you and find you. once again today, we continue our unceasing effort to keep the american people safe and the strength and security of our allies and partners around the world. i want to thank you all. may god bless you and may god protect our troops. i m heading off to new york right now. i m late. i thank you for your time. mr. president how many u.s. troops were involved, sir? mr. president, how many civilian casualties were there? there you saw the president as he know heads to new york talking about the extraordinary event that took place overnight in western syria where the leader of isis was taken out. with me now to continue our conversation, nbc news white house correspondent carol lee. clint watt, distinguished research fellow at the foreign policy research institute and an msnbc national security analyst and retired four star general
the international aspect of this group really generated in recent years around idlib, al qaeda and isis in that area. we re seeing these immanuels out of the white house where clearly in just moments we ll see president biden come out and address the nation on that podium. carol, i m just wondering, the president is very decisive on this act that took place overnight? or is that standard operating procedure? reporter: one of the things we ve heard from the president, particularly as the u.s. has withdrawn troops from the region. you heard this when the president withdrew troops and ended the war in average, this question of how is the u.s. going to keep its eye on and be able to take out terrorist organizations, particularly isis if it decided to become bigger
that was something that members of isis complained about. he didn t even release the perfunctory, you know, audio and video messages that baghdadi would release from time to time just to assure people that he was alive, and to reassure the troops. qurayshi seems to have barely ever left his house kind of like bin laden in his final days. but we did find out later bin lad laden was indeed active, involved in planning, involved in the strategic vision for the group. so there is no question he was involved in that kind of activity at least from his hideout in syria. what is isis able to carry out, outside of syria and iraq on on western targets? well, one thing they continue to do, in addition to these regional affiliates, some of which are quite impressive, is this messaging operation which was always core to the islamic state mission. they want to project themselves as not just powerful and important but also appeal to
you. reporter: president joe biden watched from the white house as special forces closed in on their target. the helicopters approached the three-story compound in the middle of the night, according to senior administration officials. once on the ground, special forces warned civilians to clear out, evacuating ten civilians, including eight children. officials say he blew himself up, killing his wife and children and tearing the top of the building apart. his lieutenant, one floor below, was killed in an exchange of fire with u.s. forces. the pentagon said a child was killed on this floor but wouldn t say how or by whom. toward the end of the two-hour operation, two members of an al qaeda affiliate were killed in an exchange of fire with u.s. forces. u.s. forces having to destroy one of the helicopters on the gd after mechanical failures. four civilians and five combatants were killed. i say capture the leader of isis. that was the intent of the mission. reporter: this was the
its footing in syria and iraq. it was having successes in its regional affiliates. especially in africa they were able to have military victories and take over territory, but not so much in iraq and syria where it all got started. they were making small raids on police stations and that sort of thing. but then in the last months, you see isis becoming much more ambitious, much more aggressive, and they were trying to get something toecgether. just as things started to coalesce, you had a symbolic blow with the leader and things got set back a bit. is it a technicality in terms of isis? is it a blow? it s clear the leader was involved in the planning. at the same time efrs he was ki the invisible man. he was never seen since he was