US -Iraq forces free 70 captives dealing with Islamic State 'mass execution'

Kurdish and US forces stormed an Islamic State (IS) jail in northern Iraq on Thursday (Oct 22), freeing some 70 captives who have been going through imminent execution, the Pentagon mentioned.

A US serviceman died of wounds sustained in the pre-dawn operation, the primary to be killed in action considering the U.S.-led campaign against IS started in Iraq in June 2014.

5 IS militants have been captured and a couple of others killed within the raid on a compound close Hawijah, Pentagon press secretary Peter cook mentioned.

"This operation used to be deliberately planned and launched after receiving expertise that the hostages faced coming near near mass execution," cook dinner said in a announcement.

The Hawijah raid marked an obvious ruin with the average modus operandi of US forces, which are in Iraq to aid government forces however do not directly have interaction in combat in keeping with President Barack Obama's "no boots on the ground" coverage.

Cook pushed again against the advice that this signalled a variety of the USA function in Iraq.

"this can be a designated hindrance," he mentioned, including that the mission used to be given the fairway mild by way of protection Secretary Ashton Carter, and that the White apartment was notified.

"We have been asked for assistance" by using the Kurdish executive, prepare dinner said, stressing that "the USA should not in an active combat mission in Iraq."

Residents advised AFP that a couple of Chinook helicopters had been worried in the raid and that several IS-run checkpoints within the field had been exact via air strikes.

Prepare dinner said US helicopters and exact operations forces accompanied Kurdish peshmerga forces to the jail compound. The American who later died was wounded "performing in help of Iraqi peshmerga forces after they got here beneath fire from ISIL," he said.

The mission was once "authorized consistent with our counter-ISIL effort to teach, recommend, and assist Iraqi forces," using an alternate acronym for Islamic State, the militant group that has sought to carve an Islamic caliphate out of colossal materials of Iraq and Syria.

"approximately 70 hostages have been rescued including greater than 20 participants of the Iraqi security forces," cook stated, including that the operation had additionally produced "fundamental intelligence about ISIL."

according to the office of Kurdish intelligence chief Masrour Barzani, 69 prisoners were rescued, six IS opponents detained and greater than 20 killed. Prepare dinner additionally mentioned that the slain US commando used to be the primary US combat death because 2011.

'rough fight'

common Lloyd Austin, the commander of all US forces within the center East, described the rescue operation as "difficult and totally victorious."

"We commend and congratulate the courageous individuals who participated on this effective operation that saved many lives, and we deeply mourn the lack of one of our own who died whilst assisting his Iraqi comrades engaged in a rough combat," he mentioned.

Those freed included prisoners who had been about to be executed as spies, and residents of Hawijah, a coalition official in Iraq stated.

"They'd finished four the earlier day. We had obvious mass graves had been dug on that compound and the information we now hear... Is that they'd been instructed they would be achieved after morning prayers this morning," the official informed AFP.

An intelligence respectable in the Kurdish-managed metropolis of Kirkuk, speakme on situation of anonymity due to the fact he isn't approved to talk to the clicking, told AFP that "high price detainees" had been believed to be amongst those captured.

He mentioned the captives have been being held in what was formerly the apartment of a regional choose.

A Hawijah resident mentioned that after the raid IS leaders in Hawijah "all went missing."

"The Daesh leaders in Hawijah all went lacking after the raid. Their offices are closed and no person knows where they went," the resident said, asking not to be identified through name. Daesh is an Arabic acronym for Islamic State.

A different nearby resident mentioned, "The crew's prime Hawijah chief used to be detained and one other senior leader too. A quantity of them had been killed and a couple of of the men and women held in that prison were freed."

Colonel Steve Warren, the coalition spokesman in Iraq, mentioned US pressure has "begun to sow a little bit of paranoia throughout the group."

"we have killed 70 of their mid- and excessive-level leaders due to the fact may, that's an usual of one each two days, so we are striking pressure on their management. And now we have visible that this creates a level of paranoia... That motives them to interrogate their own people," he mentioned.

US TIES TO KURDS

Kurdish peshmerga forces control Kirkuk and have lengthy worked carefully with the USA-led coalition.

Iraqi security and allied paramilitary forces have in contemporary days been closing in on Hawijah from the south and west. The city lies about 240km north of Baghdad.

Kurdish peshmerga forces, backed by way of US-led coalition air strikes, have also in latest weeks moved a couple of kilometers towards Hawijah, pushing down from the north and east.
US  -Iraq forces free 70 captives dealing with Islamic State 'mass execution'
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