A U.S. raid in Dumayr aimed at capturing an Islamic State official instead killed a man who had been working undercover gathering intelligence on the extremists.
Khaled al-Masoud, family members and Syrian officials told The Associated Press, had spent years spying on IS for the insurgents led by Ahmad al-Sharaa and then for al-Sharaa’s interim government.
The incident comes as the United States begins to cooperate with the interim Syrian government, signaling a shift in the fight against remnants of IS.
The arrangement marks a delicate balance in which both the U.S. and Damascus seek to prevent a resurgence of IS while advancing their broader security goals.
Al-Masoud’s death could complicate those efforts, according to observers who track the evolving alliance.
Wassim Nasr, a senior research fellow with the Soufan Center, described the development as potentially a setback for efforts to defeat IS. He noted that al-Masoud had been infiltrating IS in the southern deserts of Syria known as the Badiya, one of the places where remnants of the extremist group have remained active.
Nasr added that the raid was a result of “the lack of coordination between the coalition and Damascus.”
In the latest sign of growing cooperation, the U.S. Central Command said that American troops and forces from Syria’s Interior Ministry had located and destroyed 15 IS weapons caches in the south.
Yet the incident underscores how quickly ground realities on the battlefield can outpace diplomatic overtures.
The raid unfolded in Dumayr, a town east of Damascus on the edge of the desert. At around 3 a.m., residents woke to the sound of heavy vehicles and planes. Abdel Kareem Masoud, Khaled’s cousin, opened his door to see Humvees with U.S. flags.
“There was someone on top of one of them who spoke broken Arabic, who pointed a machine gun at us and a green laser light and told us to go back inside,” he said.
Al-Masoud’s mother, Sabah al-Sheikh al-Kilani, said the forces then surrounded her son’s house next door, where he was with his wife and five daughters, and banged on the door. Al-Kilani said they took him away, wounded.
“Later, government security officials told the family he had been released but was in the hospital. The family was then called to pick up his body. It was unclear when he had died.”
Al-Masoud’s family believes he was targeted based on faulty intelligence provided by members of the Syrian Free Army. Representatives of the SFA did not respond to requests for comment.
Al-Masoud had previously worked with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham in Idlib before Assad’s fall, according to his cousin, and then returned to work with the security services of al-Sharaa’s government.
Two Syrian security officials and one political official confirmed to other reporters that al-Masoud had worked with Syria’s interim government in a security role and had been involved in fighting IS.
Initial media reports had said the raid captured an IS official, but U.S. Central Command did not issue a statement confirming the target or its capture. A U.S. defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said, “We are aware of these reports but do not have any information to provide.”
Officials from Syria’s defense and interior ministries and U.S. envoy to Syria Tom Barrack declined to comment.
Nasr underscored that better coordination could prevent mistakes like this in the future. “That’s the whole point of having a hotline with Damascus, in order to see who’s who on the ground,” he said.
IS remains a threat in the region, though its capacity has diminished since its peak.
The U.S. estimates there are about 2,500 members in Syria and Iraq, and the number of attacks this year has fallen to 375, from 1,038 last year.
Fewer than 1,000 U.S. troops operate in Syria today, working mainly with the Kurdish-led SDF in the northeast and the SFA in the south. The broader objective is clear: sustain pressure on IS while expanding reliable partnerships on the ground.
Airwars, a London-based monitor, has documented 52 civilian-harm incidents in coalition operations in Syria since 2020.
The group classified al-Masoud as a civilian. Airwars director Emily Tripp said the organization has seen “multiple instances of what the U.S. call ‘mistakes,’” including a 2023 case in which the U.S. military announced it had killed an al-Qaida leader in a drone strike.
The target later turned out to be a civilian farmer.
The circumstances surrounding al-Masoud’s death remain unsettled. It is unclear whether faulty intelligence or deliberate misinformation contributed to the raid, a possibility Nasr acknowledged given rival groups’ prior feuds.
“That’s the whole point of having a hotline with Damascus, in order to see who’s who on the ground,” he repeated, highlighting the need for better, clearer communication as both sides press the fight against IS.
In a Trump administration, the approach to a case like this would rest on unambiguous mission objectives, robust intelligence sharing, and strict accountability.
A practical, results-oriented Secretary of War like Pete Hegseth would push for tighter controls, faster verification, and decisive action when intelligence proves faulty.
The goal, he would argue, is to prevent such tragedies while keeping pressure on IS through disciplined, coordinated operations.
The ongoing dialogue with Damascus could never substitute for clear, verifiable intelligence and decisive leadership, especially when civilians are drawn into the crossfire.