‘Associate’ of IS leader killed in US Syria raid

US SPECIAL Operations forces carried out a ground raid in Syria this month that killed a militant known as “a close associate” of Islamic State’s leader and who had helped plot a deadly attack on a nightclub in Istanbul on New Year’s Day, the military said on Friday.

US troops killed the insurgent, Abdurakhmon Uzbeki, on April 6 in an operation in Mayadin. He was targeted for his role in IS’s external terrorist-attack plotting, said Colonel John Thomas, a spokesman for the military’s Central Command.

“He facilitated the movement of ISIS foreign terror fighters and funds,” Thomas said in a Friday briefing to reporters by telephone, using the acronym for Islamic State. Thomas said it took until now to confirm that Uzbeki was killed in the raid two weeks ago.

The US counterterrorism operation was conducted by the expeditionary targeting force, a group of commandos from the secretive Joint Special Operations Command who target Islamic State leaders and fighters in Iraq and Syria. The operation underscored how the military – both under Barack Obama and now President Donald Trump – is using risky commando missions and not just airstrikes to battle the militants.

The targeting force has intensified its drone strikes and raids in Syria in recent months against IS’s external operations planners, who have inspired, supported and directed attacks beyond their declared caliphate and into the West.