WASHINGTON, May 17: After weeks of planning and surveillance focused on a compound near the oilfields of eastern Syria, elite American commandos were finally given the green light to swoop in on their target – an Islamic State commander considered to have acted as the group’s “chief financial officer.”
Mounting a rare raid in a war-ravaged country where US President Barack Obama has long been reluctant to commit “boots on the ground,” the Delta Force unit flew in from Iraq under cover of darkness in the early hours of Saturday on Black Hawk helicopters and Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft.
Their objective, according to US officials: to capture alive a Tunisian-born militant leader, Abu Sayyaf, believed responsible for overseeing the group’s black-market sales of oil and gas and other financial operations to help fund a brutal Jihadist campaign that has seized swathes of Syria and Iraq.
As US special operations forces assaulted the compound housing Islamic State leadership in the town of al-Amr,, they were confronted by militant fighters.
A fierce firefight ensued, creating scenes of chaos.
“There was close quarters, hand-to-hand combat,” one US official said.
Abu Sayyaf “engaged” the US attackers and was killed, the Pentagon said, as were about a dozen insurgents. His wife, Umm Sayyaf, who officials said was also involved in Islamic State’s “terrorist activities,” was apprehended and taken back to Iraq for interrogation.
US authorities hope they can gain useful intelligence from her and from laptops and cellphones that were seized. “We are also working to determine any information she may have regarding hostages,” said Bernadette Meehan, spokeswoman for the White House National Security Council.
US officials may be especially determined to find out anything they can about what happened to Kayla Mueller, a young American aid worker who died earlier this year while a captive of Islamic State in Syria.
(AGENCIES)
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