US Special Forces Kill Head of ISIS Oil Operations

US Special Forces Kill Head of ISIS Oil Operations

Saturday, 16 May 2015 02:42 PM

http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/Iraq-Syria-conflict-US/2015/05/16/id/645011/

BEIRUT — In a rare ground attack deep into Syria, U.S. Army commandos killed a man described as the Islamic State group'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 Saturday aboard Black Hawk helicopters and V-22 Osprey aircraft, according to a U.S. defense official knowledgeable about details of the raid. The official was not authorized to discuss the operation publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

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

Abu Sayyaf was killed, along with an estimated dozen ISIS fighters, U.S. 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 U.S. custody, officials said.

Abu Sayyaf was described by one official as the ISIS "emir of oil and gas," although he also was targeted for his known association with the group's leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

U.S. officials said it was likely, given Abu Sayyaf's position,that he knew about more than just the financial side of the group's operations.

The U.S. official said his removal probably has temporarily halted ISIS oil-revenue operations, critical to the group's ability to carry out military operations in Syria and Iraq and to govern the population centers it controls.

But U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, cautioned against exaggerating the long-term gain from killing Abu Sayyaf.

He said ISIS, like al-Qaida, "has proven adept at replacing its commanders and we will need to keep up the pressure on its leadership and financing."

A U.S. Treasury official told Congress in October that ISIS militants were earning about $1 million a day from black market oil sales alone, and getting several million dollars a month from wealthy donors, extortion rackets and other criminal activities, such as robbing banks. Kidnappings were another large source of cash.

U.S. airstrikes in Syria since September have frequently targeted ISIS oil-collection facilities in an effort to undermine the group's finances.

IS controls much of northern and eastern Syria as well as northern and western Iraq, despite months of U.S. and coalition airstrikes and efforts by the U.S.-backed Iraqi army to retake territory. ISIS holds most of the oil fields in Syria and has declared a caliphate governed by a harsh version of Islamic law.

Also Saturday, activists said ISIS fighters pushed into the Syrian town of Palmyra, home to famed 2,000-year-old ruins.

The U.S. Army raid occurred one day after the U.S.-led campaign to roll back ISIS gains in Iraq suffered a significant setback in Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province. ISIS fighters are reported to have captured a key government building in Ramadi and have established control over a substantial portion of the city, officials have said.

U.S. House Speaker John Boehner, in a written statement Saturday praising the raid into Syria, said he was "gravely concerned" by the IS assault on Ramadi and that it threatened the stability and sovereignty of Iraq.

ISIS has made major inroads at Iraq's Beiji oil refinery complex in recent days. Reports vary, but U.S. officials have said ISIS is largely in control of the refinery, as well as the nearby town of Beiji. It's on the main route from Baghdad to Mosul, the main ISIS stronghold in northern Iraq.

U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter in Washington announced the raid, followed soon after by word from the White House.

Bernadette Meehan, spokeswoman for the U.S. National Security Council, said in a statement that the woman who was freed, a Yazidi, "appears to have been held as a slave" by Abu Sayyaf and his wife. She said the U.S. intends to return her to her family.

ISIS militants captured hundreds of members of the Yazidi religious minority in northern Iraq during their rampage across the country last summer.

A senior Obama administration official said Umm Sayyaf was being debriefed at an undisclosed location in Iraq to obtain intelligence about IS operations. The official was not authorized to discuss details of the operation by name and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The raid was the first known U.S. ground operation targeting ISIS militants in Syria. A U.S.-led coalition has been striking the extremists from the air for months, but the only previous time American troops set foot on the ground in Syria was in an unsuccessful commando mission to recover hostages last summer.

Syrian state TV earlier reported that Syrian government forces killed at least 40 IS fighters, including a senior commander in charge of oil fields, in an attack Saturday on the Omar field — where the U.S. raid was said to have taken place. The Syrian report, which appeared as an urgent news bar on state TV, was not repeated by the state news agency. State TV didn't repeat the urgent news or elaborate on it.

U.S. officials said they had no knowledge of a Syrian raid and that the U.S. did not coordinate its operation with the Syrian government. Meehan said the Syrian government was not informed in advance of the raid. The U.S. has said it is not cooperating with President Bashar Assad's government in the battle against ISIS.

"We have warned the Assad regime not to interfere with our ongoing efforts against ISIL inside of Syria," Meehan said, using another acronym for ISIS. "As we have said before, the Assad regime is not and cannot be a partner in the fight against ISIL. In fact, the brutal actions of the regime have aided and abetted the rise of ISIL and other extremists in Syria."

An NSC statement said President Barack Obama authorized the raid upon the "unanimous recommendation" of his national security team.

The administration clearly is concerned by the resilience of ISIS even as officials publicly express confidence that the extremists cannot sustain their territorial gains and ultimately will be defeated.

Saturday's raid came as ISIS fighters have advanced in central and northeastern Syria. Activists said IS fighters pushed into Palmyra, home to famed 2,000-year-old ruins, after seizing an oil field and taking control of the water company on the outskirts.

ISIS said fighters took full control of Saker Island in the Euphrates River near Deir el-Zour, a provincial capital in eastern Syria split between IS and government forces.

U.S. Defense

Chuck Hagel was the secretary at the U.S. Department of Defense for the Barack Obama administration, and the chairman for the Atlantic Council of the United States (think tank).

Note: Togo D. West Jr. is a director at the Atlantic Council of the United States (think tank), was the secretary for the U.S. Army, the secretary at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, and a general counsel for the U.S. Department of Defense.

Stanley A. McChrystal was a U.S. Army general, and is an advisory board chair for Joining Forces.

Patricia Shinseki is an advisory board member for Joining Forces, and married to Eric K. Shinseki.

Eric K. Shinseki is married to Patricia Shinseki, was a U.S. Army general, the secretary at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs for the Barack Obama administration, and a director at the Atlantic Council of the United States (think tank).

Stanley Ebner is a director at the Atlantic Council of the United States (think tank), and a member of the Burning Tree Club.

John A. Boehner is a member of the Burning Tree Club, and the speaker for the U.S. House of Representatives.

W. DeVier Pierson is a member of the Burning Tree Club, and a director at the Atlantic Council of the United States (think tank).

John W. Warner is a member of the Burning Tree Club, and an honorary director for the Atlantic Council of the United States (think tank).

Open Society Foundations was a funder for the Atlantic Council of the United States (think tank).

George Soros is the founder & chairman for the Open Society Foundations, a member of the Bretton Woods Committee, and was the chairman for the Foundation to Promote Open Society.   

Foundation to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (think tank), and the Brookings Institution (think tank).

Jessica Tuchman Mathews was the president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (think tank), a director at the American Friends of Bilderberg (think tank), an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), is a director at the Nuclear Threat Initiative (think tank), a member of the Bretton Woods Committee, and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).

Ed Griffin’s interview with Norman Dodd in 1982

(The investigation into the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace uncovered the plans for population control by involving the United States in war)

http://www.illuminati-news.com/110106a.htm

Strobe Talbott is the president of the Brookings Institution (think tank), a member of the Bretton Woods Committee, and John R. Bass was his chief of staff.

John R. Bass was Strobe Talbott’s chief of staff, and a director at the Provincial Reconstruction Team-Baghdad.

Cyrus F. Freidheim Jr. is an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), and a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago.

R. Eden Martin is the president of the Commercial Club of Chicago, and counsel at Sidley Austin LLP.

Michelle Obama was a lawyer at Sidley Austin LLP.         

Barack Obama was an intern at Sidley Austin LLP.    

Newton N. Minow is a senior counsel at Sidley Austin LLP, a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago, and an honorary trustee at the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

Edward P. Djerejian is a trustee at the Carnegie Corporation of New York, and was a

U.S. ambassador for Syria.

David A. Hamburg is the president emeritus for the Carnegie Corporation of New York, Margaret A. Hamburg’s father, and an adviser at the Nuclear Threat Initiative (think tank).

Carnegie Corporation of New York was a funder for the Brookings Institution (think tank), the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (think tank), and the Nuclear Threat Initiative (think tank).

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (think tank) was a funder for the Nuclear Threat Initiative (think tank), and the U.S. Department of Defense.

Margaret A. Hamburg is David A. Hamburg’s daughter, the VP for the Nuclear Threat Initiative (think tank), and a member of the Markle Task Force on National Security in the Information Age.

Ashton B. Carter is a member of the Markle Task Force on National Security in the Information Age, the secretary at the U.S. Department of Defense for the Barack Obama administration, was the defense acquisitions czar for the Barack Obama administration, a member of the Bretton Woods Committee, and a co-director for the Preventive Defense Project.

William J. Perry was the secretary for the U.S. Department of Defense, a member of the Iraq Study Group, is a co-director for the Preventive Defense Project, a director at the Nuclear Threat Initiative (think tank), and an honorary director at the Atlantic Council of the United States (think tank).

Iraq Study Group made policy recommendations on U.S. involvement in Iraq.

James A. Baker III was a co-chair for the Iraq Study Group, is a member of the Bretton Woods Committee, and an honorary director for the Atlantic Council of the United States (think tank).

Chuck Hagel was the chairman for the Atlantic Council of the United States (think tank), and the secretary at the U.S. Department of Defense for the Barack Obama administration.

Madeleine K. Albright is an honorary director for the Atlantic Council of the United States (think tank), a member of the Bretton Woods Committee, a friend of Susan E. Rice, and was a member of the National Security Council.

Susan E. Rice is a friend of Madeleine K. Albright, the White House national security adviser for the Barack Obama administration, was a director at the Atlantic Council of the United States (think tank), a special assistant to the president for the National Security Council, and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution (think tank).

Lee H. Hamilton is an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), a member of the Bretton Woods Committee, and was a co-chair for the Iraq Study Group.

Iraq Study Group made policy recommendations on U.S. involvement in Iraq.

James A. Baker III was a co-chair for the Iraq Study Group, is a member of the Bretton Woods Committee, and an honorary director for the Atlantic Council of the United States (think tank).

William J. Perry was a member of the Iraq Study Group, the secretary for the U.S. Department of Defense, is a director at the Nuclear Threat Initiative (think tank), an honorary director at the Atlantic Council of the United States (think tank), and a co-director for the Preventive Defense Project.

Ashton B. Carter was a co-director for the Preventive Defense Project, the defense acquisitions czar for the Barack Obama administration, a member of the Bretton Woods Committee, is a member of the Markle Task Force on National Security in the Information Age, and the secretary at the U.S. Department of Defense for the Barack Obama administration.