Sources: U.S. Special Operations forces kill ISIS commander (1 Viewer)

[bigbottom]

http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/16/middleeast/syria-isis-us-raid/index.html

(CNN)U.S. Special Operations forces killed a senior ISIS commander during a raid intended to capture him in eastern Syria overnight Friday to Saturday, U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter said.

The ISIS commander, Abu Sayyaf, fought capture and was killed in the raid in al-Amr, he said in a statement.

Carter said he had ordered the raid at the direction of President Barack Obama. All the U.S. troops involved returned 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, an Iraqi named Umm Sayyaf, was captured and is currently in military detention in Iraq, National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan said in a statement.

Umm 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. ISIL is an alternative acronym for ISIS.

Umm Sayyaf is believed to have been involved in human trafficking and hostage taking.

About a dozen ISIS fighters were killed in the firefight at a residential building in Deir Ezzor, the sources said.

Abu Sayyaf is not a name familiar to many ISIS watchers.

But the fact that the United States clearly had him under close watch was ready to put its forces at risk by going deep into Syria to carry out the raid suggests they saw the target as very valuable.

 

[fantasycurse42]

No casualties on our end

Just shows how much better our military is than these clowns. On their turf, we kill a dozen high value targets and return safely, awesome job military!

 

[TripItUp]

 

[Good Posting Judge]

Hand-to-hand combat!

 

[Chadstroma]

Another botched mission.

 

[Bucky86]

Thanks, Obama.

 

[SaintsInDome2006]

In case anyone missed it, we actually went into Syria to do this. - If I'm not mistaken I think there was also a report that we had seriously injured the alleged caiiph himself, al-Baghdadi. We all ought to be really proud of our armed forces.

Someone has to go take that land back from though, it won't be us but someone needs to.

 

[SacramentoBob]

Good thing we spend a lot of money on our military so we can do things like this.

 

[Sand]

Not sure why we're trying to capture these guys. Bullet to the head is fine.

 

[kevzilla]

Not sure why we're trying to capture these guys. Bullet to the head is fine.

I hear you, and it's certainly cheaper, but:

They don't mind dying in the cause, and getting their half a gross of virgins. They do mind rotting away at Gitmo (or a Supermax, I'm not picky).

We might get useful intelligence from them. Leaving torture aside, we're pretty good at standard police-style interrogation. Makes getting the next guy much easier.

The country they came from may want them back. That country might be our friend, our enemy, or our frenemy, but having those brownie points in our back pocket could be handy when we need a Godfather-type "favor" from them.

 

[Chadstroma]

Not sure why we're trying to capture these guys. Bullet to the head is fine.

Intelligence.

If this guy was heading up their financing then they could potentially find out all the ways that they are getting money and block it as much as possible.

 

[The General]

This is the way it is done. Quick and tactical.

Keep up the good work, boys.

 

[Sand]

Not sure why we're trying to capture these guys. Bullet to the head is fine.

I hear you, and it's certainly cheaper, but:

They don't mind dying in the cause, and getting their half a gross of virgins. They do mind rotting away at Gitmo (or a Supermax, I'm not picky).

We might get useful intelligence from them. Leaving torture aside, we're pretty good at standard police-style interrogation. Makes getting the next guy much easier.

The country they came from may want them back. That country might be our friend, our enemy, or our frenemy, but having those brownie points in our back pocket could be handy when we need a Godfather-type "favor" from them.

I'm not sure these (all good points) outweigh the martyr factor if this guy gets to pontificate while on trial and such. We tend to have some pretty rotten ideas on how to treat these guys at trial at present.

 

[bigbottom]

I'm all for getting guys like this as many virgins as they want in the afterlife. I'm generous like that.

 

[RedmondLonghorn]

Wonder if this was a Delta or ST6 mission.

 

[Chadstroma]

Not sure why we're trying to capture these guys. Bullet to the head is fine.

I hear you, and it's certainly cheaper, but:

They don't mind dying in the cause, and getting their half a gross of virgins. They do mind rotting away at Gitmo (or a Supermax, I'm not picky).

We might get useful intelligence from them. Leaving torture aside, we're pretty good at standard police-style interrogation. Makes getting the next guy much easier.

The country they came from may want them back. That country might be our friend, our enemy, or our frenemy, but having those brownie points in our back pocket could be handy when we need a Godfather-type "favor" from them.

I'm not sure these (all good points) outweigh the martyr factor if this guy gets to pontificate while on trial and such. We tend to have some pretty rotten ideas on how to treat these guys at trial at present.

Well, that is the whole stupid thing about the whole debate on Gitmo and civil trials etc. This is a war in war zones with combatants that largely are not US citizens. You can not prosecute a war with the same restrictions that you normally would afford for civil prosecutions of criminals.

Reality demands that you capture if you can and if it makes sense. If you capture, it is not to prosecute in a civil trial but to gather intelligence to allow you to further destroy your enemy. If you can not or there is no intelligence likely, you kill your enemy.

The enemy bring able to use a trial for propaganda is a problem but in comparison to the real problems, a minor one.

 

[Good Posting Judge]

Sources: ISIS Special Operations Forces won their Call of Duty matchup this week against a group of high-school aged Belgian kids.

 

[dozer]

Yet another win for President Obama and our military

 

[Fennis]

I love it when republicans complain that this president is not enough of a war monger for them.

 

[cstu]

Abu Sayyaf is a midlevel leader in the organization — one terrorism analyst compared him to Al Capone’s accountant — and likely is replaceable in fairly short order.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/17/world/middleeast/abu-sayyaf-isis-commander-killed-by-us-forces-pentagon-says.html

 

[cstu]

Wonder if this was a Delta or ST6 mission.

Delta Force

 

[cstu]

Not sure why we're trying to capture these guys. Bullet to the head is fine.

Bruce O. Reidel, a former C.I.A. analyst now at the Brookings Institution, said the operation looked like “a collection mission, the goal to capture someone or two someones who can explain how ISIS works.” With Abu Sayyaf now dead, he said, “perhaps the wife can do that.”

 

[RedmondLonghorn]

Abu Sayyaf is a midlevel leader in the organization one terrorism analyst compared him to Al Capones accountant and likely is replaceable in fairly short order.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/17/world/middleeast/abu-sayyaf-isis-commander-killed-by-us-forces-pentagon-says.html

Almost certainly why they really wanted to capture him: he would have intelligence that could be used to disrupt ISIS' finances. Same reason the FBI likes to find the money men for organized crime groups.

 

[BigSteelThrill]

?

 

[Tau837]

Not sure why we're trying to capture these guys. Bullet to the head is fine.

I hear you, and it's certainly cheaper, but:

They don't mind dying in the cause, and getting their half a gross of virgins. They do mind rotting away at Gitmo (or a Supermax, I'm not picky).

We might get useful intelligence from them. Leaving torture aside, we're pretty good at standard police-style interrogation. Makes getting the next guy much easier.

The country they came from may want them back. That country might be our friend, our enemy, or our frenemy, but having those brownie points in our back pocket could be handy when we need a Godfather-type "favor" from them.

I'm not sure these (all good points) outweigh the martyr factor if this guy gets to pontificate while on trial and such. We tend to have some pretty rotten ideas on how to treat these guys at trial at present.

Who said anything about a trial?

 

[lod01]

I love it when republicans complain that this president is not enough of a war monger for them.

I thought they gave up that angle....they actually have no angles left other that 'I hate the guy' at this point. I can understand that thought process, it's leading towards another democrat in the WH.

Jim11? Thoughts?

 

[Sand]

I love it when republicans complain that this president is not enough of a war monger for them.

Not even a half assed attempt here. I expect better.

 

[MaxThreshold]

I love it when republicans complain that this president is not enough of a war monger for them.

I thought they gave up that angle....they actually have no angles left other that 'I hate the guy' at this point. I can understand that thought process, it's leading towards another democrat in the WH.

Jim11? Thoughts?

Surprised you were able to type this with Obama's d##k in your hands all day long. Unlike Sand, however, I did NOT expect anything better.

I, for one, am glad Obama ordered this. Just fine for me.