A senior ISIS commander was killed by U.S. Special Operations forces during a raid in eastern Syria overnight Friday to Saturday, U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter confirmed on Saturday. The raid was intended to capture him.
Abu Sayyaf, the ISIS commander, resisted capture and was killed in the raid in al-Amr.
Carter ordered the raid at the direction of President Obama. All U.S. troops involved in the operation returned home 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, Umm Sayyaf, was captured and is now in military detention in Iraq, National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan confirmed in a statement.
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.
Umm Sayyaf has been involved in human trafficking and hostage taking.
About a dozen ISIS fighters were killed in the firefight, according to sources.
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