US President Joe Biden says the leader of the Islamic State (IS) group has been killed in an overnight US special forces raid in north-west Syria.

Biden says the death of Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi had "removed a major terrorist threat to the world".

He adds that Qurayshi detonated a bomb that killed himself and members of his own family in a final act of desperate cowardice.

Syrian first responders said they found the bodies of 13 people after the raid.

The operation targeted a two-storey residential building on the outskirts of the opposition-held town of Atmeh, which is in northern Idlib province and is close to the border with Turkey.

The region is a stronghold of jihadist groups that are fierce rivals of IS, as well as Turkish-backed rebel factions fighting the Syrian government.

[Source: BBC]