U.S. soldiers kill senior Islamic State commander in Syria raid, capture wife

Orlando Sentinel ^ | 05/16/15

[Enlightened1]

U.S. commandos mounted a rare raid into eastern Syria overnight, killing a senior Islamic State commander in a firefight, capturing his wife and rescuing a Yazidi woman held as a slave, the Pentagon said Saturday.

Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced the raid, identifying the militant as Abu Sayyaf. He said no U.S. forces were killed or injured in the operation.

A U.S.-led coalition has been striking Islamic State militants in Syria since last year, but this is only the second time troops have carried out a ground raid. A previous operation was aimed at rescuing Americans held hostage by the group.

Syrian state media 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 country's largest oil field - held by IS.

It identified the commander as Abu al-Teem al-Saudi. The name indicates he was a Saudi citizen.

[Lorianne]

RELATED: US begins training Syrian rebels to fight ISIL group

Translated: The US begins training future ISIS members.

[bert]

I would argue that along with the Syrian officers that left years ago, these troops will be the nucleus of the army that defeats ISIL and forms the new military of the new Sunni nation that formed from what was once Syria and Iraq.

That was the plan along until Obama got cold feet in November of 2013 and backed out.

[Lorianne]

Why do we want to be a part of forming a new Sunni army creating a new Sunni nation?

Why are we backing Sunnis now?
Saddam Hussein and his Bathists Party were Sunnis. He already had a trained Sunni army and a Sunni government.
Palestinians are Sunnis Why not train them and put them in charge if we want Sunnis in control?
ISIS is Sunni. If we support a Sunni army then why not let ISIS run things?

WTH ????

I’m sorry, I just do not understand why it is in our interest to back either Sunnis or Shias in this religious civil war.

[bert]

The Gulf States, those that gave Obama the finger, our allies.

Think Egypt and longer than a ninety day horizon. The area in question is traditionally Sunni and wad torn asunder into Iraq and Syria. The point of all this is to return that condition.

As a secondary objective, Assad, like Saddam, will be gone

[Lorianne]

Shias outnumber Sunnis by a wide margin in Iraq. Sunnis outnumber Shias by a smaller margin in Syria

Iraq is approximately 60-70 percent Shi’a, 20-30 percent Arab Sunni and 10 percent Kurdish (who are also mostly Sunni)

The largest religious group in Syria are the Sunni Muslims which make up around 64% of the population

Iraq was already under Sunni control under Saddam even though Sunnis were the minority. I don’t care either way which one is in control of the government ... but why do we want Sunnis back in control in Iraq when we went to a lot of trouble (under Bush) to topple the Sunni and hand over control to Shia? Doesn’t make much sense to me.

All that blood just to go back to what was?

As I said, I don’t care which one is in control, I’m just asking for some basic logic to all this.

[bert]

You don’t get it.....the Iraq and Syria of which you speak are no more.

Those states no longer exist as they once did

Bad? Good? mostly for a few years, just different

[Lorianne]

Sunni and Shia have been fighting each other over there for over 1000 years ... before there were those arbitrary boundaries and now after those arbitrary boundaries are gone ... are we supposed to care who wins ? ... if either side ever wins?

Tell me why I should care which ISLAMIC faction wins this in another 1000 years or so. Tell me why our men and women should go over there and lay down their lives in order to take sides in a 1000 year old religious war.

Which team are you rooting for, Sunni or Shia?

[melancholy]

I was trying to explain how our regime is dropping our allies, Israel, Egypt and the Gulf states. I gave Egypt as an example. The first phrase in your answer was:

"Yes, it’s complicated."

If it's that complicated for you, who's the simpleton?

You also wrote:

"Plus I’ve travelled extensively in the Middle East and North Africa and I’ve read lots of history of the region ... way back."

Wow! Then you should know better than the "a la Israel" statement.

"My own ancestors left Syria for this reason."

Thank God they knew better than staying and trying to "arm themselves in defensive positions, a la Israel." They saved your family by understanding that leaving at the time was the right thing to do. Those were the good times in Syria compared to what it is today.

"I don’t see a workable plan that is going to make Muslims stop killing a) each other and b) others when the get the chance."

You didn't think of the crucial c)...MAKING THE EFFORT TO KILL Americans all over the world in general and on American soil in particular.

"What is your plan?"

Item #1 in my plan will injure your humanitarian sensibility with its "simplicity!" Here goes that offensive word again.

1- raze Al Reqqa to the ground in hours by the B-52s. Don't worry about the left screaming"war crimes" and such nonsense. Once the head of the snake is gone, the word will be that

* أمريكا ذبحت القطة. You should be familiar with this ME expression. It means literally: America slaughtered the cat. That transmits the message: if America did that unfathomable deed, what would they do to the rest of us if we don't behave? Terrorists only respect brutal force, not empty threats. Until they taste it, they'll carry on their savagery It's a historical fact in the ME.

2- finishing ISIS off would be done with Egyptian, Jordanian, Saudi and other Arab ground troops augmented with our SF and coordinated air strikes of the coalition that supposedly exists now.

3- no Iranian deal! No $50 bil signing bonus.

4- outhouse growing a spine and no more instructions from ValJar.

So, what do you say? My plan or shall we sit it out, dump our allies who want to fight ISIS and fight the savages in our streets?

Until we achieve energy independence by overpowering the globull warming crowd and drill everywhere, we will need the ME!

It's just a "simple" fact of life!

[Lorianne]

You cannot kill them all. There are 1.6 Billion Muslims all over the globe, not just in the Middle East. Indonesia for example. (In contrast there are only 319 million of us, counting babies to elders).

How about we let them alone to kill each other? After all, they’ve been doing that for over 1000 years. They’re getting pretty good at it by now. It’s mostly Muslims killing other Muslims over interpretations of Islam. This is something for non-Muslims to die for? I don’t know about you but I don’t care about interpretations of Islam ... and I don’t want any American to die getting involved in that fight. That’s just stupid.

We should protect ourselves and of course kill anyone attempting to attack us. We should not import more Muslims over here because if even if only 10% of them are radical Islamists that will be bad enough.

Other than that, why is it our problem that they are fighting each other? Why should Americans lay down their lives to take sides in this religious war? And that is what we are doing ... taking sides.

[Lorianne]

Egyptian, Jordanian, Saudi and other Arab troops are not trustworthy. No Muslim army is. They can do it on their own without our help if they are so inclined.

[bert]

Sunni...... The Gulf Arabs are our allies and primarily Sunni

The Arabs are not the problem......the Persians are our enemy and the problem. The Saudi King gave Obama the finger and is hoping for a new president

[melancholy]

This is going to be short and sweet.

“
You cannot kill them all. There are 1.6 Billion Muslims all over the globe, not just in the Middle East.”

Don’t put words in my mouth. You don’t think I thought that 1.6 bil Moslems live in Al Reqqa, did you?

Your repetitive posts that ignore what I said about OUR OWN NATIONAL SECURITY AND THAT THEY ARE ALREADY HERE AND TRYING TO MURDER AMERICANS, apparently don’t connect.

[melancholy]

“Egyptian, Jordanian, Saudi and other Arab troops are not trustworthy. No Muslim army is.”

Apparently, you don’t know what happened in the Gulf war, do you?

Bye.

[Lorianne]

Why do you want to bomb them in al Reqqa?
Because they are killing each other?

I don’t understand this. Why not just let them kill each other?

What I mean is if you bomb them there are more ... so you’ll have to kill more ... and more ... and more. If they are not directly targeting us then why get involved?

[Lorianne]

OK so you like some Muslims ... great.

[Lorianne]

If they are HERE and plotting to kill us, then we kill them. That’s real simple.

Bombing a whole Muslim city makes no sense. Why?

[Lorianne]

None of them are our allies.
We have armed and trained the ones who are now on a rampage throughout the middle east.

[melancholy]

“OK so you like some Muslims ... great.”

Don’t be childish!

‘Nuff said.

[Lorianne]

You are the one who claims we can trust some Muslims.
Own it.

Maybe you’re right, but I don’t think so and I don’t think history supports your view.

[melancholy]

Playing historian doesn’t make you one.

Hint: Gulf War I.

Gee, how many times do I have to repeat facts?

Repeat after me: Gulf War I, Gulf War I, Gulf War I, ........