BEIRUT – Members of an elite U.S. force have carried out a ground operation in eastern Syria aimed at capturing leaders of the Islamic State, U.S. officials said Monday.
The raid took place Sunday near a small town along the Euphrates River valley to the north of the city of Deir al-Zour, deep in the heart of Islamic State territory, according to the officials and Syrian activist groups.
The troops, who landed on helicopters, spent about 90 minutes in the area, then left carrying Islamic State captives and bodies, according to witnesses quoted by the website Deir al-Zour 24, which monitors Islamic State activity in that province.
A U.S. official said U.S. forces intercepted a vehicle thought to be carrying senior Islamic State members, but declined to say whether the militants had been captured or killed. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an operation that the Pentagon has not yet publicly announced, said there were no American casualties.
The raid appeared to be an operation by the Expeditionary Task Force, a team of Special Operations forces based in Iraq that is charged with hunting down Islamic State leaders.
Col. John Dorrian, spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition, confirmed that the raid had taken place but declined to provide details or say whether any leaders had been seized.
“The Coalition can confirm a U.S. operation in the vicinity of Deir al-Zour on Jan. 8. The U.S. and the entire counter-ISIL Coalition will continue to pursue ISIL leaders wherever they are to ensure the security and stability of the region and our homelands,” he said in an email. ISIL is another name for the Islamic State.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that 25 Islamic State members were killed in the operation. Another activist group, Sound and Picture, said two Islamic State prisoners were freed, but the details could not be independently confirmed.
The U.S.-led coalition has in recent months targeted and killed a string of senior Islamic State officials with drone strikes, but ground raids aimed at capturing leaders are rare. The most successful capture was that of Abu Sayaf, a top financier, in May 2015, also in the province of Deir al-Zour. In July 2014, Special Operations forces landed near the Islamic State’s self-proclaimed capital of Raqqa to rescue Western hostages, but they did not find any.
A U.S. soldier died in another raid in the Iraqi town of Hawija in October 2015 that freed about 70 Iraqi captives but did not find Kurdish peshmerga hostages thought to be there. U.S. officials said five Islamic State militants were captured and at least 10 killed in that raid.
The highest-ranking leader killed was Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, the Islamic State’s spokesman and second in command to leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Adnani was hit by a drone strike in August after U.S. reconnaissance planes tracked him for months in a rural area of northern Syria.
There has been no word on the whereabouts of Baghdadi, who has eluded the U.S. forces hunting for him. Pentagon officials said two weeks ago that they think he is still alive.
(c) 2017, The Washington Post ยท Liz Sly, Missy Ryan
