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US boots hit the ground in fight against IS

Published:Saturday | May 16, 2015 | 12:00 AM
AP
Displaced Iraqis from Ramadi rest before crossing the Bzebiz bridge after spending the night walking towards Baghdad, as they flee their hometown, 65 km west of Baghdad, Iraq, yesterday. Islamic State militants seized the center of Ramadi in western Iraq and raised their black flag over the government compound, local officials said.

SYRIA (AP):

In a rare ground attack deep into Syria, United States Army commandos killed a man described as the Islamic State's head of oil operations, captured his wife and rescued a woman whom American officials said was enslaved.

A team of Delta Force commandos slipped across the border from Iraq under cover of darkness yesterday aboard Black Hawk helicopters and V-22 Osprey aircraft, according to a US defence official knowledgeable about details of the raid.

The Americans intended to capture a militant identified by US officials as Abu Sayyaf. When they arrived at his location, a multi-storey building, they met stiff resistance, the US official said, and a fire fight ensued, resulting in bullet-hole damage to the US aircraft.

Abu Sayyaf was killed, along with an estimated dozen IS fighters, US officials said. No American was killed or wounded.

Before the sun had risen, the commandos flew back to Iraq where Abu Sayyaf's wife, Umm Sayyaf, was being questioned in US custody, officials said.