A new U.S. special operations team has been questioning a key Islamic State leader in Iraq since seizing him in a raid last month, U.S. officials said Wednesday. It is believed to be the first case of a top IS militant captured alive in that country.
The officials would not identify the militant by name or provide other details, but the raid appears to be the first major success by the Pentagon's new expeditionary targeting force that recently began operating in Iraq. It aims to disrupt Islamic State operations in Iraq and Syria and gather intelligence that can be used to conduct follow-on raids and strikes.
What a darned shame we don't have a secure detention facility where we could keep high-value terrorists like him while interrogating him.
We are beating ISIL in Iraq and Syria, I should add:
Islamic State is losing a battle against forces arraigned against if from many sides in Iraq and Syria and the focus would turn to stabilizing cities seized back from them, the U.S. envoy to a coalition fighting the group said on Saturday.
Although as much as I've complained about the slow pace in Iraq, the pace in Syria is too fast if it outpaces the defeat of Assad who will benefit from beating down ISIL there prematurely.
That's inconvenient for us, too.
And the looming battle against ISIL in Libya War 2.0 is taking shape:
Planning is at an advanced stage, special forces are already on the ground and air power assets are being moved within range: a new Western military intervention in Libya is edging ever closer.
But a long-anticipated move against offshoots of the Islamic State group remains on hold as long as Libya has not formed a unified government with the authority to ask for help to stem the extremist group's growth.
Which is inconvenient for a certain political candidate who championed the 2011 war that promised to learn a lesson from Iraq by deposing the dictator and then getting out of the way to allow the locals to sort out their problems without our bad influence and presence that allows locals to avoid facing their problems and just provokes jihadis to flock to the region (the left said, anyway).
