President
Barack Obama ordered
the secret operation, the first of its kind by the U.S. inside Syrian territory
since the start of the civil war, after the U.S. received intelligence the
Americans were being held by the extremist group known as Islamic State at a
specific facility in a sparsely populated area inside Syria. Among the group,
intelligence agencies believed at the time, was James Foley, the U.S.
journalist whose beheading was shown in a grisly video
released Tuesday. U.S. Special Operations forces
previously mounted an unsuccessful mission inside Syria to rescue American
journalist James Foley. The operation sought to rescue several Americans held
by Islamic State extremists. U.S. Special Operations forces mounted an unsuccessful
mission inside Syria earlier this summer to try to rescue several Americans
held by Islamic extremists, including the journalist
who was beheaded this week, senior Obama administration officials said. President Barack Obama ordered the secret operation, the
first of its kind by the U.S. inside Syrian territory since the start of the
civil war, after the U.S. received intelligence the Americans were being held
by the extremist group known as Islamic State at a specific facility in a
sparsely populated area inside Syria. Among the group, intelligence agencies
believed at the time, was James Foley, the U.S. journalist whose beheading was
shown in a grisly video
released Tuesday.The officials declined to say precisely where and when the
operation took place. But its disclosure was just the latest of several signs
of a toughening American posture toward the extremist forces of Islamic State,
a group that Mr. Obama Wednesday labeled a "cancer" on the Middle
East. Officials said that several dozen Special Operations forces took part in
the helicopter-borne operation as drones and fighter aircraft circled overhead.
After landing nearby and approaching the facility by foot, the force came under
small-arms fire, to which it responded, the officials said. Several fighters of
the Islamic State were killed in the exchange of fire. One member of the
special operations forces team was shot and slightly injured, the officials
said.But the U.S. forces didn't find any of the Americans in the facility and
pulled out of the area. "When the opportunity presented itself, the
president authorized the Department of Defense to move aggressively to recover
our citizens," Lisa Monaco, assistant to the president for homeland
security and counter terrorism, said in a statement. "Unfortunately, that
mission was ultimately not successful because the hostages were not
present."
The U.S. rescue
mission wasn't coordinated with the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad,
a senior U.S. official said. As the
details of the attempted rescue suggest, Mr. Foley wasn't the only Westerner
being held by Islamic State operatives. Approximately 20 journalists are
believed to be missing in Syria, with many held by the Islamic State, according
to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Philip Balboni,
the president and chief executive of GlobalPost, an online news site Mr. Foley
worked for, said Mr. Foley's captors originally demanded a ransom sum from both
the family and GlobalPost of €100 million ($132.5 million). He declined to
discuss their reply to the demand. He said all communication was shared with
appropriate government authorities.
Source ( The Wall Street
Journal)
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