US raid kills Islamic State’s ‘oil minister’ in Syria, wife captured

WASHINGTON: US special forces killed a top Islamic State leader, Abu Sayyaf, who was also known as the group’s chief financial officer, and captured his wife in a rare operation carried out inside Syria on Friday.

Announcing the raid Saturday morning, the White House said the operation was conducted to capture Sayyaf, but he was killed when he engaged US forces.

US forces reportedly encountered fierce opposition from IS fighters and also engaged in hand-to-hand combat with them, before reaching Sayyaf, who also resisted capture.

Sayyaf was described as a senior IS leader who played a key role in conducting the outfit’s illicit oil and gas operations – a major source of revenue for it, thus the designation CFO. He was also involved with the group’s military operations, the White House said.

His wife, Umm Sayyaf, who, the US said was also a member of the terrorist outfit and took part in its activities, is being held in military detention in Iraq.

The special forces also found a Yezidi woman held as a slave by the couple. There have been reports of IS forcing captured women from the Yezidis, an ethnic group living in the norther parts of Iraq, into sexual slavery.

“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,” said national security council spokesperson Bernadette Meehan in a statement.

This was a rare raid into Syria as President Barack Obama has said since beginning air strikes against ISIS targets in Syria that there will be no US “boots on the ground”.

US special forces went in — dropped from aircraft — to rescue Americans being held by IS in Syria in 2014 but didn’t find them. They left after a brief exchange of fire with terrorists.

The Friday raid, conducted in al-Amr in eastern Syria, was a complete success in comparison — the Pentagon said no US troops were killed or injured in the operation.

IS LEADER ABU SAYYAF WAS IN CONTROL OF THE OUTFIT’S ILLICIT OIL AND GAS OPERATIONS — A MAJOR SOURCE OF REVENUE FOR IT