Daesh video shows ‘aftermath of Iraq raid by US’

Arbil, Baghdad: The Daesh terror group has purportedly released a video showing the aftermath of a raid in northern Iraq by US and Iraqi special forces in which one American soldier was killed.

The video, released by the pro-Daesh news agency Aamaq, allegedly shows the rubble of the prison raided in the town of Huwija, as well as abandoned first aid equipment and mutilated bodies, purportedly of Daesh terrorists killed in the clashes.

About 70 hostages, including at least 20 members of the Iraqi security forces, were freed from captivity in Thursday’s raid. It was the first time US troops had become involved in direct ground combat in Iraq since the war against Daesh was launched in August 2014.

The video could not be immediately verified.

On Friday, a source in the Kurdistan Region Security Council said that US special forces who raided a prison compound in northern Iraq were acting on intelligence that Kurdish fighters were being held there by Daesh.

Kurdish counter-terrorism forces also took part in the raid, which rescued 69 people early on Thursday. One US commando was killed, the first American to die in ground combat with Daesh terrorists. Four Kurds were wounded.

Such rescue attempts are rare. The joint operation highlighted the status of Kurdish Peshmerga fighters as key allies of the US-led coalition against the terrorists who control large swathes of Iraq and neighbouring Syria.

“The intention was to rescue Peshmerga taken hostage by [Daesh],” said the source in the Security Council of Kurdistan, a semi-autonomous region of northern Iraq. “We had solid intelligence that Peshmerga were being held in that compound.”

It turned out, however, that none of the captives were Peshmerga, suggesting they may have been moved to another location, the source said.

The detainees were in fact Arabs and included around 20 members of the Iraqi security forces. The others were local residents and Daesh fighters that the group had accused of spying, said a US official.

US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter said the mission produced a cache of intelligence, and US forces supporting Iraqi troops were likely to undertake more raids in the future. He said he decided on the rescue after intelligence showed that executions were imminent and mass graves had been dug.

Carter said US troops were not planning to enter the compound, and were there only to advise and assist Kurdish fighters. The commando who died, Master Sergeant Joshua Wheeler, was killed when a firefight broke out and he ran to help the Peshmerga.

The video circulated by Daesh supporters online purported to show the aftermath of the raid, including blood-stained medical equipment and packages labelled as containing trauma dressing “made in the USA.”

Buildings in the area were levelled and several mangled bodies of what a caption said were prisoners lay wrapped in blankets amid the smashed concrete.

Daesh holds hostages in detention centres across the sprawling lands it controls. It also regularly executes people it accuses of spying for the Iraqi state or foreign powers.

Some 62 Peshmerga have gone missing in battle with Daesh and several have been beheaded in propaganda videos.

Iraqi government forces, Iran-backed militias and the Kurds are all fighting Daesh but coordination can be difficult in a country deeply divided along sectarian and ethnic lines.

Iraq’s Defence Ministry said earlier on Friday it was not informed about the previous day’s operation, which took place just north of the Daesh-controlled town of Hawija The mission was the most significant raid against Daesh in months. A CIA spokesperson declined to comment on the suggestion that the rescued hostages had connections to the US government.

Senior Iraqi politician Ayad Allawi said he suspected there must have been significant figures among the hostages to warrant a risky intervention by US special forces.

“I think this would have happened only if there were some useful assets,” he said.