A U.S. soldier
Raid marks first U.S. ground attack on militants in Iraq
dies in a hostage-rescue effort in Iraq.
“This is not something that’s going to now happen on a regular basis.”
— Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook
WASHINGTON — A high-stakes raid Thursday by U.S. special operations forces and Kurdish fighters to free 70 prisoners held by Islamic State militants resulted in the first combatrelated death of an American service member in Iraq since 2011.
The pre-dawn operation also raised questions about the expanding role of the U.S. military in Iraq and President Barack Obama’s vow to put “no boots on the ground” in that country.
The Pentagon characterized the operation as part of Obama’s mission to train, advise and assist Iraqi forces against the militants, and not as a combat operation. But the raid, which needed special approval by Defense Secretary Ash Carter, put U.S. forces into a firefight alongside another army to save foreign captives.
The mission marked an expansion of U.S. participation in the fight against the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, to aid partners in its ground offensive the against the militants.
“This was a unique circumstance in which very close partners of the United States made a specific request for our assistance,” Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said in a news briefing. “There was a deliberate process to analyze this situation and the circumstances, and that’s when the decision was made to move forward with this operation.”
He added, “I wouldn’t suggest you should look at this as some change in tactics on our part. This is not something that’s going to now happen on a regular basis.”
Under the cloak of darkness, before 2 a.m. local time, three Chinook and two Black Hawk helicopters took off from an air base in Irbil in northern Iraq and flew some 90 miles to the prison in the town of Hawija, said U.S. officials, who were not authorized to speak publicly on the classified raid.
About 60 U.S. special forces from the Army’s Delta Force and Kurdish commandos were packed inside, headed toward a compound with two buildings at the corners, which U.S. intelligence analysts had been watching via aerial spy imagery for over two weeks, officials said.
The goal was to free captured Kurdish troops known as peshmerga, who have been among the fiercest fighters in the U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State. The Kurds and U.S. believed there were at least 20 of the fighters inside, Kurdish and U.S. officials said. Aerial images showed there were trenches dug outside the compound, which officials believed were intended to be mass graves for the captives being held.
Before the helicopters touched down, attack aircraft delivered airstrikes around the compound to block roads in which nearby Islamic State fighters could join the battle, the officials said. When Kurdish fighters approached the prison, Islamic State militants opened fire.
The American who was killed was wounded amid the firefight and airlifted back to Irbil, where he later died. Four Kurdish fighters were also wounded.
After getting into the facility and killing about 15 Islamic State fighters acting as guards, the forces took 75 captives who were being held and loaded them back on to the helicopters.
At least five of the captives were former Islamic State fighters being held as traitors, officials said. The Pentagon confirmed that more than 20 of the captives were members of the Iraqi army. The raid lasted about two hours. U.S. and Kurdish officials were surprised to find that no Kurds were among the rescued hostages.
While the U.S. military has unilaterally conducted at least two other ground raids against the Islamic State inside Syria, this operation marks the Pentagon’s first confirmed assault inside Iraq since the Islamic State rose to power last year.
“The special operators were definitely involved in combat,” said Patrick Martin, an Iraqi analyst at the Institute for the Study of War. “The Pentagon can say it’s not a combat mission, but it is… There’s a lot of politics involved with looking like you’re scaling up.”