OSINT SUMMARY
Friday 23rd October 2015, the Department of Defense announced that US Special Forces together with Kurdish troops launched a massive operation that included ground and air assaults against an Islamic State-run prison in Hawijah central Iraq.
Through a press release, Department of State indicated that one American soldier was killed during the raid on what the military insisted was not a combat rather than a rescue mission.
According to US Defense Secretary Peter Cook, the US Special Forces were involved on a support operation that saw a rescue mission of about 70 hostages successful from an Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant prison near Hawijah, Iraq.
The Special Forces were enjoined in the operation on request by the Kurdistan regional government after a tip off intelligence sources that hostages faced imminent risks of being executed by the ISIL militants.
The rescued hostages were put under the watch of Kurdistan region government security and no hostages died during the well orchestrated rescue operation.
US made available helicopter lift accompanied by the Iraqi Peshmerga forces from the ground to where the ISIL held the hostages. 20 hostages were found to be Iraqi security forces while the remaining were Iraqi civilians.
The raid also saw five ISIL terrorist being captured and dozens others killed. So far the U.S. has been able to gather important intelligence about ISIL operations.
US Special Forces have been involved on the fight against ISIL in Syria and Iraq. Notably, in May this year the Special Forces killed an Islamic State military and head of Financials known as Abu Sayyaf and captured his wife Umm Sayyaf in Deir al Zour province in eastern Syria.
During the raid another estimated 19 Islamic State militants were also killed.
