WASHINGTON \u2014 US Army special forces killed an Islamic State commander in a daring night raid, the White House said Saturday, in the first publicly confirmed American ground operation targeting jihadists in Syria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
US commandos have entered Syria before, for example last year on a failed bid to rescue Western hostages, but this week’s operation appeared to mark a departure in missions targeting the militants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the course of the raid, a Yazidi woman who had apparently been enslaved by the couple was rescued and the IS commander’s wife \u2014 herself allegedly a member of the group \u2014 was captured.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The decision to send commandos to strike the inner circle of the IS group in was an unexpected move by the Americans, who have so far fought the extremists almost entirely from the air.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On orders from President Barack Obama, elite troops from the US Army’s Delta special operations forces based in Iraq sought to capture the IS militant Abu Sayyaf, who oversaw oil smuggling for the jihadists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“During the course of the operation, Abu Sayyaf was killed when he engaged US forces,” a spokeswoman for the White House National Security Council, Bernadette Meehan, said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His wife, Umm Sayyaf, also suspected of being a member of the IS group, was captured, Meehan said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The operation also led to the freeing of a young Yazidi woman who appears to have been held as a slave by the couple. We intend to reunite her with her family as soon as feasible,” she added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Yazidis, a religious minority in northwest Iraq with ancient origins, have been persecuted by jihadists and rights groups say Yazidi women have been kidnapped, raped and sold as slaves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The IS militant’s wife is under “US military detention in Iraq” but American officials had not yet decided on her ultimate legal fate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
US officials, the White House said, suspect she “played an important role in ISIL’s terrorist activities, and may have been complicit in the enslavement of the young woman rescued last night.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
‘Hand-to-hand combat’<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The American special forces went after Sayyaf in Al-Omar in eastern Syria, in a region that has one of the country’s biggest oil fields.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Members of the US Army’s elite Delta special operations unit descended on Sayyaf’s compound in Black Hawk helicopters and Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft, a defense official told AFP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
IS militants at the multi-story compound tried to use women and children as shields but US forces were able “separate the innocents,” said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a firefight, US troops killed “about a dozen” armed militants but were able to avoid causing civilian casualties, the official said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At one point, he said, fighting took place “at very close quarters, and there was hand-to-hand combat.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pentagon chief Ash Carter hailed the raid as a triumph.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The operation represents another significant blow to ISIL, and it is a reminder that the United States will never waver in denying safe haven to terrorists who threaten our citizens, and those of our friends and allies,” he said, using an alternative acronym for the IS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
US forces suffered no casualties in the night raid, officials said, without offering details about how many troops were involved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At least one of the Black Hawk choppers used in the raid had bullet holes from IS gunfire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was not the first time US officials acknowledged a covert raid inside Syria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
US commandos last year tried to rescue an American journalist held hostage by the Islamic State, James Foley.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the operation failed, and Foley and other hostages had been moved by the time the US forces arrived. Foley was later executed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sayyaf, the senior militant targeted in the latest raid, was involved with IS military operations and had “a senior role in overseeing ISIL’s illicit oil and gas operations,” the White House said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The oil smuggling provides “a key source of revenue that enables the terrorist organization to carry out their brutal tactics and oppress thousands of innocent civilians.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
US-led air strikes, launched in August last year, have repeatedly targeted the IS group’s oil facilities<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The operation was carried out with the full approval of the Iraqi government, officials added. The United States has publicly severed ties with President Bashar al-Assad’s Syrian regime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Obama, Meehan said, was grateful to “the Iraqi authorities for their support of the operation and for the use of their facilities, which contributed to its success.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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