US raid in Syria killed 32 IS members, including 4 leaders: monitor
A
US 58th Special Operations Wing helicopter pictured during a training
mission near Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico on March 24, 2000
(AFP Photo/)
"The US operation killed 32 members of IS, among them four officials, including IS oil chief Abu Sayyaf,
the deputy IS defence minister, and an IS communications official,"
said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
US
officials have said "about a dozen" people were killed in the operation
on Friday night, which was conducted by Iraq-based US commandos in
order to capture Abu Sayyaf.
Abdel
Rahman said three of the four leading officials killed in the raid were
from North Africa, but that the IS communications official was Syrian.
US President Barack Obama
approved the special forces operation, a rare use of "boots on the
ground" by the United States, which has fought the jihadists almost
entirely from the air.
The
operation targeted an IS compound at al-Omar, one of Syria's largest oil
fields, which is located in the eastern Deir Ezzor province.
A
US official speaking on condition of anonymity said the commandos
engaged the jihadists "at very close quarters... there was hand-to-hand
combat".
US Secretary of
Defence Ash Carter called the operation a "significant blow" to IS,
while Adam Schiff, a Democrat on the House intelligence committee, said
US attacks "have put increasing pressure on the economics undergirding
the terrorist organisation".
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