A rescue force comprised of Kurdish and American forces stormed a compound in northern Iraq where ISIS was holding prisoner members of Iraqi security forces, Army and police.
American helicopters and American and Kurdish special operations forces were reportedly successful in freeing 70 prisoners. Fox News reported that at least 10 ISIS hostage takers were killed during the operation, and at least five were themselves taken hostage.
The Iraqi prisoners were being held near the town of Hawija, an ISIS outpost in northern Iraq. American airstrikes bombed roads leading to the ISIS prison just before the special forces commando teams landed.
“People were chained to walls,” a military source told Fox News. Another senior defense source said that a “mass atrocity was averted.”
According to the Pentagon, rescuers “deliberately planned” the operation, and moved in when it was apparent that ISIS hostage takers were planning to kill the hostages.
This was the first known American commando operation in Iraq in the fight against ISIS. The soldier was the first American fatality in Iraq since the U.S. withdrew from that nation in 2011.