First US ground operation in Syria kills ISIS oil chief

The first US ground operation in the five years of Syrian war was directed against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant – ISIS.  American sources report that US Special Operations forces mounted a raid Saturday, May 16, on an ISIS house in the Deir el-Zour district of eastern Syria, killing senior Islamist commander and oil and gas chief, Abu Sayyaf, when he resisted capture. His Iraqi wife, Umm Sayyaf, was taken to Iraq for interrogation by the US troops, all of whom returned safely. DEBKAfile’s military sources add that the US raid was mounted from Jordan, not Iraq. The operation also led to the rescue of a Yazdi woman held as a slave by Abu Sayyaf and his wife, said he Pentagon.