Believing that Islamic State captives held on a compound in northern Iraq faced “imminent mass execution,” dozens of US special operations troops and Iraqi forces raided the site on Thursday, freeing approximately 70 Iraqi prisoners in an operation that saw the first American killed in combat in the country since the US war against ISIS began in 2014, officials said.
The raiders killed and captured a number of militants and recovered what the Pentagon called a trove of valuable intelligence about the terrorist organisation.
The US service member who died was not publicly identified pending notification of relatives. Officials said this was the first American combat death in Iraq since the US began its counter-ISIS military campaign in August 2014.
In a written statement, Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook said the operation was undertaken near the town of Hawija at the request of the Kurdish Regional Government, the Semi-Autonomous body that governs the Kurdish region of northern Iraq. He said US special operations forces supported what he called an Iraqi Peshmerga rescue operation.
The Peshmerga are the Kurdish region’s organised militia.
The circumstances in which one US military member was killed were unclear, but one US official said the American had been shot in a fire-fight at the scene. Cook said the service member was wounded during the mission and died after receiving medical care. Cook said four Peshmerga soldiers were wounded.
Another US defence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to provide other initial details, said the US role in the rescue mission was mainly limited to four areas: transporting Iraqi soldiers to the scene in five US special operations helicopters; providing air strikes before and after the mission; advising Kurdish fighters and Iraqi security forces; and providing the Iraqis with intelligence for the operation.
US combat troops have rarely, if ever, participated directly in combat against ISIS fighters on the ground since the US mission began in 2014. The US has mostly limited its role to training and advising Iraqi and Kurdish forces and providing daily air strikes in ISIS-held areas of Iraq.
The US Defence official said the number of ISIS members killed was not to be made public immediately but that it was more than 10.
Cook said that of the approximately 70 prisoners freed, more than 20 were members of the Iraqi Security Forces. He did not say who the others were.
Cook said five ISIS members were detained and “a number” were killed.
“In addition, the US recovered important intelligence” about IS, Cook said without elaborating.