Syria: US forces in airdrop raid near Idlib, mass grave found in Latakia

US-led coalition forces carried out an airborne raid at dawn on Wednesday in the town of Atmeh in Idlib province, near the Syrian–Turkish border, targeting suspected Islamic State (IS) group members.

Local sources told The New Arab’s sister site Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that two coalition helicopters conducted the landing operation with aerial cover from reconnaissance aircraft, while Syrian Internal Security Forces participated on the ground.

 The raid focused on several houses belonging to members of the Qaddour family, along with foreign women of unspecified nationalities.

The targeted individuals were released after the two-hour operation, the sources said. Syrian security units later searched nearby farmland.

There was no information regarding casualties, and the fate of the suspected IS figure targeted in the operation has not been disclosed.

The operation follows a joint mission on 25 July in the town of al-Bab in Aleppo province, where coalition and Syrian security forces killed three IS fighters and detained a senior Iraqi commander in what was the first reported cooperation of its kind.

Mass grave found in Latakia province

Elsewhere in Syria, authorities said on Tuesday that they found a mass grave containing nine bodies in the countryside of Latakia province.

Brigadier General Abdulaziz Hilal al-Ahmed, head of Internal Security Forces in Latakia, said units were dispatched to Bustan al-Basha, north of Jableh, after intelligence indicated the presence of the mass grave.

The remains were located in a large pit inside a farm owned by Hassan Youssef Younes, a former air force brigadier general in the deposed Assad regime, the interior ministry said.

Civil defence teams recovered the bodies, while forensic police documented evidence under the supervision of security agencies. Ahmed said investigations are ongoing and pledged continued efforts "to uncover the facts and reinforce stability in the province".

A local source told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed the bodies were decomposed and transferred to forensic medicine.

Residents in several provinces, including Homs, Damascus countryside, Daraa, and Hama, have recently reported suspected mass graves.

Earlier discoveries included more than 15 bodies at the 'Kuwaiti farm' in Daraa and remains found this month in Homs's Karam al-Zeitoun neighbourhood.