The key Iraqi city of Ramadi has fallen to ISIS. This despite U.S. air strikes and a full-on effort by Iraqi armed forces.
After the jump, details of the raid into Syria.
From U.S. Special Ops Forces Enter Syria, Kill Senior ISIS Member – NBC News.com:
U.S. Special Operations Forces killed a senior leader of ISIS overnight Friday during a rare raid in Syria and freed a young woman who appeared to have been held as a slave in his household, the White House announced Saturday.
The preplanned operation near the eastern Syrian city of Deir ez-Zor was supposed to be a snatch and grab mission to capture ISIS leader Abu Sayyaf alive. Instead, he was killed amid a gun battle and hand-to-hand combat between ISIS militants and Army Delta Force commandos.
Twelve enemy fighters were killed in the operation, while no American forces were hurt, U.S. officials said.
Sayyaf’s wife, Umm Sayyaf, was captured during the raid. She is being held in Iraq and will be secluded from other prisoners, officials told NBC News. She is accused of being “directly complicit in (ISIS) activities, specifically human trafficking,” an official said.
In addition, “the operation also led to the freeing of a young Yazidi woman who appears to have been held as a slave by the couple,” the White House said in a statement.
Abu Sayyaf was in charge of overseeing ISIS’s oil and gas operations, which provide crucial revenue for the militant group that has conquered swathes of Syria and neighboring Iraq.
A U.S. military official described the raid, which was met with heavy resistance from ISIS, as a “hugely successful operation” and represents a “significant blow” to the terror network operating in Syria and Iraq.
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