ReSexzskilz:
American special forces killed a senior Islamic State group leader and captured his wife in a
daring raid in eastern Syria, the White House has announced.
In the course of the dramatic operation, a Yazidi woman believed to have been enslaved by
the couple was rescued as well, officials said.
The bold raid, with elite American commandos striking at the inner circle of the IS group
in their eastern Syrian stronghold, was a rare use of “boots on the ground” by the United
States, which has fought the jihadists almost entirely from the air.
On orders from US President Barack Obama, the special operations forces based in Iraq
sought to capture the IS militant, Abu Sayyaf, who oversaw oil smuggling and military
operations for the jihadists. But the extremist was killed after firing on the US troops, the
White House said.
“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 on
Saturday in a statement.
His wife, Umm Sayyaf, suspected of being a member of the IS group, was captured, Ms
Meehan said.
“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,” Ms Meehan said.
The Yazidis, a religious minority in northwest Iraq with ancient origins, have been
persecuted by the IS jihadists and rights groups say Yazidi women have been kidnapped,
raped and sold among the extremists.
The IS militant’s wife was under “US military detention in Iraq” but American officials had
not yet decided on her ultimate legal fate.
US officials 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,” the White
House said.
The American forces went after Sayyaf in Al-Omar in eastern Syria, one of the country’s
biggest oil fields.
US forces suffered no casualties in the night raid, officials said, without offering details
about how many troops were involved or what units were deployed.
The raid was carried out with the full approval of the Iraqi government, officials said.