U.S. Special Operations Forces Kill ISIS Commander Abu Sayyaf In Syria Raid
” U.S. Special Operations forces killed a senior ISIS commander during a raid intended to capture him in eastern Syria overnight Friday to Saturday, U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter said.
The ISIS commander, Abu Sayyaf, fought capture and was killed in the raid in al-Amr, he said in a statement.
Carter said he had ordered the raid at the direction of President Barack Obama. All the U.S. troops involved returned safely.
” Abu Sayyaf was involved in ISIL’s military operations and helped direct the terrorist organization’s illicit oil, gas, and financial operations as well,” he said.
His wife, an Iraqi named Umm Sayyaf, was captured and is currently in military detention in Iraq, National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan said in a statement.
Umm Sayyaf “played an important role in ISIL’s terrorist activities, and may have been complicit in what appears to have been the enslavement of a young Yezidi woman rescued last night,” Carter said. ISIL is an alternative acronym for ISIS.”
—