ATMEH, Syria (Reuters) -A pre-dawn U.S. military raid in northwestern Syria early on Wednesday targeted and killed a senior member of the Islamic State group, a U.S. official told Reuters.

It was the second known raid in northern Syria by U.S. troops since former President Bashar al-Assad was ousted in December. The Islamist-led government that replaced him has pledged to prevent a resurgence of Islamic State and is part of an anti-ISIS alliance that includes the U.S.-led coalition fighting the group.

The U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the raid killed a senior ISIS member who was seen as a candidate to be the leader of ISIS in Syria.

No U.S. troops were killed or injured in the raid, the official added.

A Syrian security source and Syria’s state-owned Al-Ikhbariya said the target was killed as he tried to escape.

Another Syrian source said the target was an Iraqi national and was married to a French national. It was not immediately clear what happened to his wife.

The Pentagon did not immediately have any public comment on the reports.

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The operation began at around 2 a.m. (1100 GMT), according to the Syrian security sources and neighbours in the town of Atmeh, in Idlib province.

Helicopters and drones provided air cover, one Syrian security source and residents said. Local Syrian forces set up a cordon around the neighbourhood, but U.S. forces conducted the actual raid, the second security source said.

Abdelqader al-Sheikh, a neighbour, said he was up late with his son and heard a noise in the yard next door.

“I called out, ‘Who are you?’ and they started speaking to me in English, telling me to put my hands up,” Sheikh told Reuters.

He said the armed forces stayed on the roofs of surrounding houses for the next two hours and that he could hear someone nearby speaking Arabic in an Iraqi accent.

In July, the Pentagon said its forces had conducted a raid in Aleppo province resulting in the death of a senior Islamic State leader and his two adult Islamic State-affiliated sons.

Idlib has been a hiding spot for senior Islamic State figures for years. U.S. forces killed ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in the village of Barisha in Idlib province in 2019 and his successor, Abu Ibrahim al-Hashemi al-Quraishi, in Atmeh in 2022.

(Reporting by Karam al-Masri in Atmeh, Suleiman al-Khalidi in Amman and Idrees AliWriting by Maya GebeilyEditing by Frances Kerry, Rod Nickel)

(Reuters) — Hurricane Erin, churning north in the Atlantic hundreds of miles offshore, is expected to trigger a dangerous storm surge and tropical storm conditions on Wednesday along North Carolina’s Outer Banks and other stretches of the U.S. East Coast.

The National Hurricane Center warned that roads in the low-lying barrier islands may become impassable, with waves as high as 20 feet crashing ashore. The heavy surf is likely to result in significant beach erosion, it said in its 8 a.m. EDT update.

North Carolina Governor Josh Stein declared a state of emergency on Tuesday, freeing up state money and manpower to help during the storm and its aftermath.

Tropical storm and storm-surge warnings are in place for other parts of the North Carolina coastline.

Earlier in the week, the coastal counties of Dare and Hyde — which encompass most of the Outer Banks — ordered residents and tourists to evacuate the vulnerable Ocracoke and Hatteras islands, whose populations swell during the summer months.

Local media reported that ferries took more than 2,220 people off Ocracoke, with the final sailing scheduled for 11 a.m. on Wednesday. Ferries to Hatteras will keep operating as long as conditions allow, ABC News affiliate WCTI reported.

But Chris Styron, manager of the Pony Island Inn on Ocracoke, is ignoring the evacuation orders and staying to watch over the 50-room hotel.

“We’re used to storms like this,” Styron said. “I’m born and raised here. We’re not really worried — it’s so far offshore.”

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The eye of Erin, rated as a Category 2 storm with sustained winds of 100 mph (155 km/h), was expected to move midway between the U.S. East Coast and Bermuda on Wednesday and Thursday as it traveled northward, the NHC said. That trajectory will keep the worst of its winds offshore.

Tropical-storm-force winds extend up to 265 miles (426 km) from the storm’s center, with hurricane-force winds extending for 90 miles.

Even so, the NHC warned beachgoers along most of the East Coast to stay out of the water because of “life-threatening surf and rip currents.”

Along the New Jersey shore, swimming and other water activities were prohibited on beaches from Cape May north to Sandy Hook, with high surf and rip current warnings in effect into Friday, the NWS said. Coastal flooding is expected to peak during high tide on Thursday.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams ordered all city public beaches — including Coney Island and Brighton Beach — to close on Wednesday and Thursday.

Fortunately, temperatures in New York were expected to be seasonably cool on Wednesday and Thursday, with highs only reaching 70°F, well below the average of 82°F.

Erin, the fifth named storm of the 2025 Atlantic season and the first to attain hurricane status, had strengthened to a Category 5 storm. The last Atlantic storm to reach that intensity was Hurricane Milton in October 2024.

(Reporting by Rich McKay in Atlanta; Editing by Frank McGurty and Mark Porter)