Lethal US raid on IS encounters a doll, crib, bomb, bullets

By GHAITH ALSAYED, ZEKE MILLER, LOLITA C. BALDOR and CALVIN WOODWARD
Associated Press

When helicopters carrying some 50 U.S. commandos landed in Syria an hour after midnight, the raiders confronted a houseful of extremists and children. Baby comforts were inside — a stuffed bunny, a plastic swing, a crib. So was the paraphernalia of violence — including the bomb that the Islamic State’s leader is said by U.S. officials to have used to blow up himself, his family and perhaps others. It was an audacious raid in an extremist stronghold. The raid was months in the works, and executed with the understanding that children might die as well as the hunted IS chief if the building’s occupants did not get out when given the chance.