Posted on 05/16/2015 6:42:11 AM PDT by 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at orlandosentinel.com ...
Is your next rationale for us to give women in Syria greater rights or bring democracy to Syria? How about build schools, roads and bridges and give them jobs so they won’t be so mean?
You’ve tried just about all the usual rationales.
I don’t care if Assad stays or goes. That decision belongs to the people in Syria and/or the people in the region. It’s not our call.
Christians have been living in this dangerous part of the world among sectarian muslim warfare for centuries. They should know the score by now. They should defend themselves a la Israel. Arm up to the teeth and take up defensive positions . I wouldn’t mind helping them do that.
It's not often I run into someone arguing in defense of ISIS on FR.
Ah the last defense ... and ad hom.
So predictable
Great job of killing the ISIS leader. Great job of freeing the Yazidi woman held as a slave. Bad job of capturing with wife of the ISIS leader unless they turn her and the freed slave over to the Yazidis and walk away.
?????
“Let them take the risks themselves and kill their own extremists.”
It’s not that simple when 0b0z0t0llah puts sticks in the wheels.
In case of Egypt, 0c0ward punished Sisi by cutting military aid. Here’s some of the reasons that nowadays gets an “American” president mad at an ally:
1- getting rid of Morsi and the MB. They’re declared a terrorist organization
2- bombing terrorists in Libya before and after ISIS beheaded 21 Egyptian Copts. Mind you, 0liar REFUSED to utter the word “Copts or Christians” and called them “Egyptian citizens!” The usual Alinsky’s wordplay.
0b0z0 is supporting enemies of Egypt, notably Qatar and Turkey who are:
a- supporting ISIS financially and facilitating foreign terrorists, including but not limited to, Americans to walk through the Turkish-Syrian border.
b- helping consummate the islamocommie deal to trade “American” deserter for 5 Taliban commanders for who are now released to go back and help kill Americans.
3- going after Hamas and killing the black flag carriers in the Sinai.
4- the stealth coalition between Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and YES, ISRAEl. I guess we have to give him credit for unintended consequences!
BTW, the ME grapevine is taking about Egyptian tank crews are in Saudi Arabia to operate Saudi tanks to invade Yemen. No word on a timeline.
Stay tuned.
"made good" = dead. Eg, good terrorist = dead terrorist.
Yes, it’s complicated. But it still comes down to this:
Sunnis hate Shias.
Shias hate Sunnis
Extremists from both groups want each other annihilated. This has been going on for 1000 years or more
NOW, which Islamic ideology should our American military personnel lay down their lives for?
Delta.
“NOW, which Islamic ideology should our American military personnel lay down their lives for? “
ANY AND ALL that educates, converts, attacks and issue fatwas that cause harming Americans, period.
That should be applicable to ANY RELIGION, IDEOLOGY, CULTURE, COUNTRY, ETC.
No exception.
Obviously, we’re dealing with Islamists who are converting, training and recruiting Westerners of different faiths to become terrorists and head choppers.
But we’re not doing that.
We are taking sides.
Even worse we are asking our military persons to fight people who were previously armed and trained by our military.
This is nothing short of INSANE and criminal to our young people who join the military.
Look, we should have a strong military. But we should not be arming and training Muslims of any persuasion whatsoever nor any Muslim government. Much less going in there to build school, roads, infrastructure etc in the INSANE belief that they will then like us and not want to kill us (The Bush/Harf doctrine).
How many times has that worked?
Yeah, that’s a distinct possibility.
“....they will then like us and not want to kill us (The Bush/Harf doctrine).”
Putting president Bush and Harf in the same sentence is insulting. I’m sure that will be the majority opinion in our military.
In your #42:
“Christians have been living in this dangerous part of the world among sectarian muslim warfare for centuries. They should know the score by now. They should defend themselves a la Israel. Arm up to the teeth and take up defensive positions . I wouldn’t mind helping them do that.”
Simplistic, to say the least. How can Christians or any other minority have their own country “a la Israel?” Amazing.
If we don’t defend the Christians by killing the Islamists main force in the ME, more defenseless christians will be slaughtered. Our regime is allowing another holocaust. Years later, the handwringing about what we should have done will be debated.
“None of our business” doesn’t work in today’s world. The Islamists are inside the gates because oceans are hurdles no more.
The old isolationism is the modern ducking the responsibility of defending the American people.
“We will overthrow the- hey, what was that loud kaboom?”
US Special Operations Forces kill Islamic State commander in Syrian raid
Long War Journal | May 16, 2015 | By Bill Roggio
Posted on 05/16/2015 10:59:27 AM PDT by Brad from Tennessee
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3290549/posts
From Al jezeera.....
US special forces soldiers have killed a senior leader of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group during a raid carried out in eastern Syria, the US secretary of defence said.
Pentagon chief Ash Carter said in a statement on Saturday that the raid in al-Amr had killed Abu Sayyaf when he “engaged US forces”.
Al Jazeera’s Omar al-Saleh, reporting from the Bekaa valley in neighbouring Lebanon, said two US helicopters had taken part in the operation at an oil field east of the city of Deir Az Zor.
“Activists from the area say at least six people from ISIL were killed, including at least two of Arab nationalities; a Saudi and an Iraqi,” Saleh said.
“We believe the operation may have taken place overnight or early Saturday.”
The US put the number of ISIL deaths at about a dozen, and said no US soldiers were killed during the incident.
RELATED: US begins training Syrian rebels to fight ISIL group
Abu Sayyaf was involved in planning ISIL’s military operations and had helped direct its oil, gas, and financial operations.
His wife was captured during the operation and is currently being detained by the US military in Iraq.
Another White House official, Bernadette Meehan, said a Yazidi woman kept as a slave by Sayyaf and his wife was rescued during the raid, which was authorised by US President Barack Obama.
“This operation was conducted with full consent of Iraqi authorities and, like our existing air strikes against ISIL in Syria, consistent with domestic and international law,” Meehan said.
The White House said no advance notice was given to the Syrian government about the operation, the Reuters news agency reported.
“We have warned the Assad regime not to interfere with our ongoing efforts against ISIL inside of Syria,” Meehan said.
Bill Fallon, the former head of the US Central Command, told Al Jazeera that the operation showed the US had made advances in collecting intelligence on ISIL.
“It puts ISIL on notice that they’ll have to be wary of the fact allied forces could come and get them at any time,” Fallon said.
“The major objective of these kinds of things is to keep ISIL off balance, to let them know there’s no sanctuary no matter where they are, that will be very helpful to the effort on the ground.”
.....and everybody hates the Jews.
You are the one who is being simplistic.
I’m looking at cold hard reality. Plus I’ve travelled extensively in the Middle East and North Africa and I’ve read lots of history of the region ... way back.
These religious wars have been going on for over 1000 years, since way before there was a USA. We are not going to stop them even if we devoted every man woman and child in the United States to only that task and no other.
Look, the world is dangerous and bad stuff happens everywhere. Christians in the Middle East know who their neighbors are and what they are like. They’ve known for centuries. My own ancestors left Syria for this reason.
What is your plan? 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.
Why are we concentrating on A ?
Why are we arming and training Muslims ... over and over again?
I like Bush and I voted for Bush but his position on “minds and hearts” is indistinguishable from Harf’s. It doesn’t work. They will never ever like us and they will never ever stop killing each other (and blaming others). It’s just that harsh reality.
I do not agree with sending our military over there to protect some Muslims from other Muslims in a 1000+ year old religious civil war ... and that is what we are doing. It might sound good and noble and altruistic and all that but in reality it is just stupid.
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