US forces kill IS commander in Syrian ground raid
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UNITED States commandos mounted a rare raid into eastern Syria overnight, killing a senior Islamic State commander in a firefight, capturing his wife and rescuing a Yazidi woman held as a slave, the Pentagon said yesterday.
Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced the raid, identifying the militant as Abu Sayyaf. He said no US forces were killed or injured in the operation.
A US-led coalition has been striking IS militants in Syria since last year, but this is only the second time troops have carried out a ground attack. A previous operation last summer was aimed at rescuing Americans held hostage by the group, but failed to recover any.
Syrian state TV earlier reported that Syrian government forces killed at least 40 IS fighters, including a senior commander in charge of oilfields, in an attack yesterday on the country’s largest oilfield — held by IS. It identified the commander as Abu al-Teem al-Saudi. The name indicates he was a Saudi citizen.
It was not immediately clear why both Syria and the US would claim a similar operation in the Omar oilfield. The US has said it is not cooperating with President Bashar Assad’s government in the battle against IS, but said it usually gives Damascus a heads-up on operations within its borders.
The Syrian report was not repeated by the state news agency. State TV didn’t repeat the urgent news or elaborate on it.
The Britain-based Syria Observatory for Human Rights confirmed an attack on the Omar oilfield, saying at least 19 IS members, including 12 foreigners, were killed.
The group did not say who carried out the attack, but said it was told there was an airdrop that followed the airstrikes.
The Observatory relies on a network of activists on the ground in Syria.
The US did not provide the full name of the militant identified as Abu Sayyaf. There was no information immediately available on jihadist websites.
A statement from the US National Security Council said Abu Sayyaf was a “senior ISIL leader who, among other things, had a senior role in overseeing ISIL’s illicit oil and gas operations — a key source of revenue ... He was also involved with the group’s military operations.”
A US defense official said the raid was conducted overnight Friday by a team of Army Delta commandos who flew into eastern Syria from Iraq.
On arrival at the target, which was a multi-story building, the Americans met stiff resistance. A “fairly intense firefight” ensued, including hand-to-hand combat, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The US said about a dozen IS fighters were killed but no civilians were hurt, even though women and children were present. The Americans returned to their base unharmed.
The IS leader who was killed was a Tunisian national designated by IS as the organization’s “emir of oil and gas,” according to the US official.
The National Security Council statement said President Barack Obama authorized the operation.
It said also that US troops rescued a young Yazidi woman “who appears to have been held as a slave” by the slain militant and his wife. IS captured hundreds of members of the Yazidi religious minority in Iraq during its rampage across the country last summer.
The extremist group controls much of northern and eastern Syria as well as northern and western Iraq. It has control of most of the oil fields in Syria, which are a key source of its funding.
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