| New York Times | - |
BEIRUT
- In a rare ground attack deep into Syria, U.S. Army commandos killed a
man described as the Islamic State's head of oil operations, captured
his wife and rescued a woman whom American officials said was enslaved.
BEIRUT
— In a rare ground attack deep into Syria, U.S. Army commandos killed a
man described as the Islamic State's head of oil operations, captured
his wife and rescued a woman whom American officials said was enslaved.
A
team of Delta Force commandos slipped across the border from Iraq under
cover of darkness Saturday aboard Black Hawk helicopters and V-22
Osprey aircraft, according to a U.S. defense official knowledgeable
about details of the raid. The official was not authorized to discuss
the operation publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The
Americans intended to capture a militant identified by U.S. officials
as Abu Sayyaf. When they arrived at his location, a multi-story
building, they met stiff resistance, the U.S. official said, and a
firefight ensued, resulting in bullet-hole damage to the U.S. aircraft.
Abu Sayyaf was killed, along with an estimated dozen IS fighters, U.S. officials said. No American was killed or wounded.
Before
the sun had risen, the commandos flew back to Iraq where Abu Sayyaf's
wife, Umm Sayyaf, was being questioned in U.S. custody, officials said.
Abu
Sayyaf was described by one official as the IS "emir of oil and gas,"
although he also was targeted for his known association with the group's
leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
U.S.
officials said it was likely, given Abu Sayyaf's position, that he knew
about more than just the financial side of the group's operations.
Despite
the U.S. claims, much about the IS figure was in question. The name Abu
Sayyaf has rarely been mentioned in Western reports about the extremist
group and he is not known to be among terrorists for whom the U.S. has
offered a bounty. The name was not known to counterterrorism officials
who study IS and does not appear in reports compiled by think tanks and
others examining the group's hierarchy.
The
U.S. official said Abu Sayyaf's death probably has temporarily halted
IS oil-revenue operations, critical to the group's ability to carry out
military operations in Syria and Iraq and to govern the population
centers it controls.
But
U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence
Committee, cautioned against exaggerating the long-term gain from
killing Abu Sayyaf.
He
said IS, like al-Qaida, "has proven adept at replacing its commanders
and we will need to keep up the pressure on its leadership and
financing."
A
U.S. Treasury official told Congress in October that IS militants were
earning about $1 million a day from black market oil sales alone, and
getting several million dollars a month from wealthy donors, extortion
rackets and other criminal activities, such as robbing banks.
Kidnappings were another large source of cash.
U.S.
airstrikes in Syria since September have frequently targeted IS
oil-collection facilities in an effort to undermine the group's
finances.
IS
controls much of northern and eastern Syria as well as northern and
western Iraq, despite months of U.S. and coalition airstrikes and
efforts by the U.S.-backed Iraqi army to retake territory. IS holds most
of the oil fields in Syria and has declared a caliphate governed by a
harsh version of Islamic law.
Also Saturday, activists said IS fighters pushed into the Syrian town of Palmyra, home to famed 2,000-year-old ruins.
The
U.S. Army raid occurred one day after the U.S.-led campaign to roll
back IS gains in Iraq suffered a significant setback in Ramadi, the
capital of Anbar province. IS fighters are reported to have captured a
key government building in Ramadi and have established control over a
substantial portion of the city, officials have said.
U.S.
House Speaker John Boehner, in a written statement Saturday praising
the raid into Syria, said he was "gravely concerned" by the IS assault
on Ramadi and that it threatened the stability and sovereignty of Iraq.
IS
has made major inroads at Iraq's Beiji oil refinery complex in recent
days. Reports vary, but U.S. officials have said IS is largely in
control of the refinery, as well as the nearby town of Beiji. It's on
the main route from Baghdad to Mosul, the main IS stronghold in northern
Iraq.
U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter in Washington announced the raid, followed soon after by word from the White House.
Bernadette
Meehan, spokeswoman for the U.S. National Security Council, said in a
statement that the woman who was freed, a Yazidi, "appears to have been
held as a slave" by Abu Sayyaf and his wife. She said the U.S. intends
to return her to her family.
IS
militants captured hundreds of members of the Yazidi religious minority
in northern Iraq during their rampage across the country last summer.
A
senior Obama administration official said Umm Sayyaf was being
debriefed at an undisclosed location in Iraq to obtain intelligence
about IS operations. The official was not authorized to discuss details
of the operation by name and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The
raid was the first known U.S. ground operation targeting IS militants
in Syria. A U.S.-led coalition has been striking the extremists from the
air for months, but the only previous time American troops set foot on
the ground in Syria was in an unsuccessful commando mission to recover
hostages last summer.
Syrian
state TV earlier reported that Syrian government forces killed at least
40 IS fighters, including a senior commander in charge of oil fields,
in an attack Saturday on the Omar field — where the U.S. raid was said
to have taken place. The Syrian report, which appeared as an urgent news
bar on state TV, was not repeated by the state news agency. State TV
didn't repeat the urgent news or elaborate on it.
U.S.
officials said they had no knowledge of a Syrian raid and that the U.S.
did not coordinate its operation with the Syrian government. Meehan
said the Syrian government was not informed in advance of the raid. The
U.S. has said it is not cooperating with President Bashar Assad's
government in the battle against IS.
"We
have warned the Assad regime not to interfere with our ongoing efforts
against ISIL inside of Syria," Meehan said, using another acronym for
IS. "As we have said before, the Assad regime is not and cannot be a
partner in the fight against ISIL. In fact, the brutal actions of the
regime have aided and abetted the rise of ISIL and other extremists in
Syria."
An
NSC statement said President Barack Obama authorized the raid upon the
"unanimous recommendation" of his national security team.
The
administration clearly is concerned by the resilience of IS even as
officials publicly express confidence that the extremists cannot sustain
their territorial gains and ultimately will be defeated.
Saturday's
raid came as IS fighters have advanced in central and northeastern
Syria. Activists said IS fighters pushed into Palmyra, home to famed
2,000-year-old ruins, after seizing an oil field and taking control of
the water company on the outskirts.
IS
said fighters took full control of Saker Island in the Euphrates River
near Deir el-Zour, a provincial capital in eastern Syria split between
IS and government forces.
___
Burns
reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Darlene Superville
in Washington, Maamoun Youssef in Cairo and Qassim Abdul-Zahra in Boston
contributed to this report.
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