American special operations forces killed a senior Islamic State leader who helped direct the group's oil, gas and financial operations during a raid in eastern Syria, US officials said on Saturday.
The White House said US President Barack Obama ordered the overnight raid that killed the man identified as Abu Sayyaf. US officials said his wife, Umm Sayyaf, was captured in the raid and was being held in Iraq, Reuters reported.
This was the first known US special forces operation inside Syria apart from a failed secret effort to rescue a number of US and other foreign hostages held by IS in northeastern Syria last year. White House National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan said in a statement that US personnel based out of Iraq conducted the operation in al-Amr in eastern Syria. "During the course of the operation, Abu Sayyaf was killed when he engaged US forces," Meehan said.
"The president authorized this operation upon the unanimous recommendation of his national security team and as soon as we had developed sufficient intelligence and were confident the mission could be carried out successfully and consistent with the requirements for undertaking such operations," Meehan said.
Defense Secretary Ash Carter also said the wife "played an important role in the IS terrorist activities."
