American special operations forces killed a senior Islamic State leader who helped direct the group's oil, gas and financial operations during a raid in eastern Syria, US officials said on Saturday.
The White House said US president Barack Obama ordered the overnight raid that killed the man identified as Abu Sayyaf. US officials said his wife, Umm Sayyaf, was captured in the raid and was being held in Iraq.
This was the first known US special forces operation inside Syria apart from a failed secret effort to rescue a number of US and other foreign hostages held by Islamic State in northeastern Syria last year.
White House National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan said in a statement that US personnel based out of Iraq conducted the operation in al-Amr in eastern Syria.
“During the course of the operation, Abu Sayyaf was killed when he engaged US forces,” Ms Meehan said.
“The president authorized this operation upon the unanimous recommendation of his national security team and as soon as we had developed sufficient intelligence and were confident the mission could be carried out successfully and consistent with the requirements for undertaking such operations.”
Ms Meehan said the operation was conducted “with the full consent of Iraqi authorities” and “consistent with domestic and international law”.
The White House said the US did not inform Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s government in advance of the raid, or coordinate with Damascus.
A group tracking the Syrian civil war said a report on Syrian state TV claiming the army had killed an Islamic State official had incorrectly taken credit for a raid carried out by US forces.
Rami Abdulrahman, who runs the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said the reported raid on an oil field in the eastern Deir al-Zor province was the same one which US officials said was carried out by the American special operations forces.
Syrian state TV had carried news of the raid before it was announced in the United States, quoting its Deir al-Zor correspondent.
‘Illicit oil, gas and financial operations’
US defence secretary Ash Carter said that US special operations forces conducted the operation targeting Abu Sayyaf and his wife. Mr Carter said Abu Sayyaf was involved in the militant organisation’s military operations and helped direct its “illicit oil, gas and financial operations as well”.
Mr Carter said the wife “played an important role in ISIL’s terrorist activities”. Ms Meehan said during the operation US forces freed a young Yezidi woman “who appears to have been held as a slave by the couple”. Ms Meehan said the wife is now in US military detention in Iraq.
No US forces were killed or wounded during the operation, Mr Carter said.
“The operation represents another significant blow to ISIL, and it is a reminder that the United States will never waver in denying safe haven to terrorists who threaten our citizens, and those of our friends and allies,” Mr Carter said.
US and Arab forces have been carrying out almost daily air raids against hardline Islamist militant groups in Syria including Islamic State since last September, and US-led forces are also targeting the group in Iraq.
Reuters