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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
US special forces kill senior IS leader in Syria: Pentagon
2015-05-17
[DAWN] US special operations forces killed a senior Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
(IS) leader, who helped direct the group's oil, gas and financial operations, during a raid in eastern Syria, the Pentagon and White House said on Saturday.

The White House said President Barack Obama
Pot had helped, and booze; maybe a little blow when you could afford it. Not smack, though....
ordered the raid that killed the man identified as Abu Sayyaf
...also known as al-Harakat al-Islamiyya, an Islamist terror group based in Jolo, Basilan and Zamboanga. Since its inception in the early 1990s, the group has carried out bombings, kidnappings, murders, head choppings, and extortion in their uniquely Islamic attempt to set up an independent Moslem province in the Philippines. Abu Sayyaf forces probably number less than 300 cadres. The group is closely allied with remnants of Indonesia's Jemaah Islamiya and has loose ties with MILF and MNLF who sometimes provide cannon fodder...
. US officials said his wife, Umm Sayyaf, was captured in the raid and was being held in Iraq.

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," Meehan said.

"The president authorised 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," Meehan said.

Meehan said the operation was conducted "with the full consent of Iraqi authorities" and "consistent with domestic and international law".
Posted by:Fred

#6  The question is - why didn't they just drone him?

To get the names of his foreign financiers. Who will nave their property seized and meet mysterious deaths at the hands of the gulf emirate secret police.
Posted by: Zhang Fei   2015-05-17 18:56  

#5  The USA and the West doesn't have a dog in the fight between Assad/Iran and ISIS.

Blowback seems inevitable. I wonder what genius decided on this.
Posted by: phil_b   2015-05-17 08:44  

#4  I would have credited the elite forces of President Bashar al Assad Assad, and left JSOC the fok out of it.

Of course that would have provided Assad a political victory which actually belongs to the Champ. Regardless of future blow-back and retribution, we can't have that now can we ?

Types of infiltration platforms used, overhead surveillance, names of mission participants....Watch News at 11.

Posted by: Besoeker   2015-05-17 08:25  

#3  The question is - why didn't they just drone him?

Get Rommel?

Force them to keep a large bodyguard of loyal followers, which itself becomes a lucrative target?
Posted by: Procopius2k   2015-05-17 08:10  

#2  Deep penetration 'prisoner snatch' missions may be successful a time or two, but an Extortion-17 scenario becomes an increasing risk. These people are not stupid. Evil bastards yes, but not stupid.
Posted by: Besoeker   2015-05-17 08:01  

#1  boots were on the ground

in syria
Posted by: lord garth   2015-05-17 07:54  

00:00