When U.S. special-operations forces touched down in northwest Syria early Thursday in a raid that would bring about the death of Islamic State leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, they entered an area they were familiar with.
A little over two years earlier, they found Qurayshi’s predecessor, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who detonated his suicide vest to avoid capture, in a house 15 miles down the road.
