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US, Iraqi Forces Rescue Hostages Facing 'Imminent Mass Execution'

by VOA News October 22, 2015

A joint rescue mission by U.S. and Iraqi Kurdish fighters has freed about 70 hostages facing execution by Islamic State militants, but during a bloody battle in northern Iraq one American serviceman was fatally wounded – the first member of the U.S. military killed in the yearlong campaign against IS extremists.

Military officials at the Pentagon said the hostages freed by U.S. and Iraqi Peshmerga forces had been held in an Islamic State prison. The raid was launched in response to 'information that the hostages faced imminent mass execution,' a statement said.

VOA Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb reported that a senior U.S. defense official said dozens of Kurdish and American fighters were involved in the rescue mission. U.S. forces were 'enabling' the mission in coordination with Iraq's Kurdish regional government, the official noted, and they also recovered 'important intelligence' about the Islamic State group.

The American killed during the raid was not immediately identified. Reports said he was wounded during the firefight and evacuated to a secure part of Iraq, but died a short time later.

The 70 hostages rescued included about 20 members of Iraq's security forces. The U.S. statement said Iraqi units captured five Islamic State fighters, and that a number of other IS activists were killed.

Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said the mission that began late Wednesday night developed in this way: 'At the request of the Kurdistan Regional Government, U.S. Special Operations Forces supported an Iraqi Peshmerga operation to rescue hostages at an [Islamic State] prison near Hawijah, near Kirkuk Iraq.

'This operation was deliberately planned and launched after receiving information that the hostages faced imminent mass execution,' Cook added.

Kurdish fighters have had some success in pushing Islamic State fighters out of areas they captured in northern Iraq, with support from airstrikes by a U.S.-led coalition over the past year.

The chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Joseph Dunford, visited the region this week as part of a trip aimed at assessing the fight against IS militants.

VOA's Sam Verma contributed to this report.