Civilian toll in Syria raid may be higher than thought, U.S. officials say

U.S. military officials say there could have been more civilian casualties than initially thought in the raid that killed the top Islamic State leader in Syria last week, but they believe any such deaths were caused by the militant's suicide bomb and were not at the hands of American forces.

Laying out a chronology of the raid by special operations forces, officials also said Thursday they cannot be certain that Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi detonated the bomb that killed him and his family at his home in the sleepy village of Atmeh near the Turkish border.

But they said it was set off by him or someone else on the third floor of the building where he lived. Previously the Pentagon and President Joe Biden had said al-Qurayshi blew up himself, his wife and two children. The military officials said Thursday they believe the upper floor was rigged to explode and that it's most likely al-Qurayshi did it, not one of his family members.

They also said it's possible that others -- perhaps additional wives he had -- could have been with him and killed in that blast. They said the blast threw "multiple bodies" from the building and buried them in the rubble, and while they know al-Qurayshi and his family died, they can't rule out the possibility that other bodies were hidden in the collapse and not seen by the troops.

Speaking to a small group of reporters, two senior military officials involved in the planning or execution of the operation provided the most details to date on the Feb. 2 raid, pushing back against claims by residents and activist groups that the U.S. operation killed as many as 13 people, including civilians. They spoke on condition of anonymity as a condition for providing the briefing.