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 U.S. Special Operations Forces killed a senior leader of ISIS overnight Friday during a rare and risky ground raid in Syria and freed a young woman who was enslaved in his compound, the White House announced Saturday. 
 
 American Delta Force commandos took off from northern Iraq in Blackhawk helicopters and Osprey aircraft, going deep into ISIS-controlled territory with no allies on the ground. Their target, SIS leader Abu Sayyaf, did not go down quietly. 
 
 The preplanned operation near the eastern Syrian city of al-Amr was supposed to be a snatch-and-grab mission to capture Abu Sayyaf alive. Instead, he was killed amid an intense fire fight and hand-to-hand combat between ISIS militants and the Army Delta Force commandos. 
 
 Twelve enemy fighters were killed in the operation, while no American forces were hurt, U.S. officials said. 
 
 As the Special Operations Forces departed, they took Abu Sayyaf's wife, Umm Sayyaf, who is also considered to be an ISIS operative, into custody. As the helicopters departed, they were struck by heavy ground fire but not disabled and were able to depart the area safely. 
 
 The mission is the first known American commandos operation inside Syria outside of a failed attempt to rescue hostages held by ISIS last year. 
 
 Umm Sayyaf is being held in Iraq and will be secluded from other prisoners, officials told NBC News. She is accused of being "directly complicit in (ISIS) activities, specifically human trafficking," an official said. 
 
 The White House's National Security Council confirmed Umm Sayyaf is being "debriefed." 
 
 "We are also working to determine any information she may have regarding hostages — including American citizens who were held by (ISIS)," spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan said in a statement. 
 
 In addition, Friday's operation "also led to the freeing of a young Yazidi woman who appears to have been held as a slave by the couple," the White House said. 
 
 Abu Sayyaf was in charge of overseeing ISIS's oil and gas operations, which provide crucial revenue for the militant group that has conquered swaths of Syria and neighboring Iraq. Iraqi authorities supported Friday's raid. 
 
 A U.S. military official described the mission, which was met with heavy resistance from ISIS, as a "hugely successful operation” and represents a “significant blow” to the terror network operating in Syria and Iraq. 
 
 "Despite the rhetoric, (ISIS) is suffering significant losses in leadership and the ability to conduct operations," the official told NBC News. "Through strikes in Iraq and Syria, the Kurdish offensive in northern Syria and military successes in Iraq, (ISIS) is desperate." 
 
 The United States is leading a coalition in a military campaign to roll back the jihadist group whose self-declared caliphate in Syria and Iraq has reshaped the region. 
 
 In the Iraqi city of Ramadi, U.S.-led air strikes forced ISIS to withdraw from a government building over which the group's black flag had flown on Friday. Were it to fall, Ramadi would be the first major city to be won by ISIS since an effort by Iraqi security forces and paramilitary groups to push it back began last year. 
 
 In Syria, the group fought Syrian government forces for control of the ancient city of Palmyra, an attack that has raised fears its UNESCO World Heritage site could meet the same fate as monuments destroyed by ISIS in Iraq. 
 
 While Washington is working closely with Iraq in the fight against ISIS, it has shunned the idea of cooperating with Syrian President Bashar Assad, who it says has lost legitimacy to rule and must leave power. The United States said it did not warn Assad in advance or coordinate with his officials over Friday's special forces raid. 
 
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 — Kristen Welker, Richard Engel, Jim Miklaszewski and Courtney Kube 
 
 Reuters contributed to this report. ||||| Islamic State: US raid on senior leader Abu Sayyaf raises concerns about risks of missions 
 
 Updated 
 
 A US military raid that killed an Islamic State (IS) leader has started a debate over the risks of such raids if American soldiers are captured or killed. 
 
 In the early morning hours of Saturday (local time), American Delta Force soldiers flew by helicopter and tiltrotor aircraft deep into IS-held eastern Syria and attacked a multi-story building housing Abu Sayyaf. 
 
 The US said a dozen IS fighters were killed along with the main target, while other reports said as many as 32 militants were killed. 
 
 Sayyaf's wife was captured along with computers and documents — a Yazidi woman who had reportedly been enslaved by IS was also freed. 
 
 It was America's first successful Special Forces operation in Syria that has been publicly acknowledged. 
 
 Another operation to rescue hostages in July last year failed after the foreigners were moved by their captors. 
 
 Former deputy CIA director Michael Morrell said the real value of the raid was in "taking Sayyaf off the battlefield". 
 
 "He was incredibly important to the organisation, to funding it, to running it, very close to senior leadership, to al-Baghdadi," he said. 
 
 "It would have been great to have kept him alive and questioned him but his wife worked very closely with him so she's going to be able to tell us a lot. 
 
 "Those computers with that information we got is going to help us understand the organisation better, unravel it." 
 
 'We have hard questions that need answered' 
 
 Sayyaf is now being described in various ways — the chief financial officer of IS, the head of its illegal oil business. 
 
 A National Security Council spokeswoman said in a statement Sayyaf had a "senior role in overseeing the oil and gas operations". 
 
 You can imagine what would have happened if one of our people were captured. We'd go to move heaven and earth to get them back and the risk of escalation becomes that much greater. Adam Schiff, US Congressman 
 
 IS reportedly earns about $1.5 million from those sales each day. 
 
 Congressman Adam Schiff, the most senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, was briefed about the operation before the raid took place. 
 
 "Intelligence was good but, nonetheless, this was an extraordinary risk if one of our people were captured," he said. 
 
 "If we lost some of our Special Forces it would be tough questions to answer about whether it was worth it." 
 
 A Jordanian pilot who had been taking part in bombing missions in Syria was captured by IS and later burned alive. 
 
 While not referring specially to that incident, Congressman Schiff was concerned about the risks versus rewards. 
 
 "You can imagine what would have happened if one of our people were captured," he said. 
 
 "We'd go to move heaven and earth to get them back and the risk of escalation becomes that much greater. 
 
 "So we'll see what kind of intelligence trove we got, the extraordinary work of our Delta Forces needs to be applied on it unequivocally, but I do think we have some hard questions that we need answered here." 
 
 The Syrian government attempted to claim success for the raid before the US acknowledged it publicly. 
 
 The Assad regime also claims it killed five IS leaders at the weekend. 
 
 Topics: unrest-conflict-and-war, world-politics, terrorism, united-states, syrian-arab-republic 
 
 First posted ||||| The raid by US special forces in Syria that killed an Islamic State official also secured a significant amount of intelligence material, members of Congress who were briefed on the operation claimed on Sunday. 
 
 Senior figures on congressional committees on intelligence and security said the discovery was potentially more significant than the killing of Abu Sayyaf, who the Obama administration says led the terrorist network’s lucrative oil sales operation. 
 
 Michael McCaul, the Texas Republican who chairs the House homeland security committee, said computers and paperwork scooped up from the site in eastern Syria on Friday night would help US officials learn “where the tentacles reach” from the Isis leadership. 
 
 “We discovered a treasure trove of electronic information, and documents and records relating to the organisational structure of Isis, which will help us long term in taking out the command and control structure,” McCaul told Fox News Sunday. 
 
 
 
 On CNN Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House intelligence committee, described the material seized as “an important yield”, adding it could “present great value”. 
 
 Sayyaf’s wife, Umm Sayyaf, was being questioned in Iraq following her capture in the raid, which the White House said had resulted in the freeing of a young Yazidi woman “who appears to have been held as a slave by the couple”. 
 
 Unidentified US officials told both ABC and CBS interrogators were particularly keen to ask Umm Sayyaf about the captivity and mistreatment of Kayla Mueller, a young American aid worker who died earlier this year during her detention by the Islamic State. 
 
 Reuters reported that the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British group which gathers information from sources in the region, had concluded on Sunday that at least 32 Islamic State members, including four senior officials, had been killed by the raid and accompanying air strikes. 
 
 Amid doubts raised by analysts about the seniority of Abu Sayyaf, congressional figures insisted he was the primary target of the operation and that his death had made the high-risk mission worthwhile. 
 
 “This is the guy that we were trying to get,” said Schiff. 
 
 McCaul described Sayyaf as “the chief financial officer of Isis”. 
 
 Facebook Twitter Pinterest US raid kills senior Isis leader – video report. 
 
 Speaking on ABC, Dianne Feinstein, the senior Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee, claimed the strike was a “picture-perfect raid” and urged the administration to mount more special operations in the region. 
 
 However, Schiff urged caution against escalation, saying that while the administration had clearly decided the value of intelligence gained by the raid was “sufficient to merit that kind of risk”, it should not signal the start of a wave of similar operations. 
 
 “Nonetheless, this was an extraordinary risk and if one of our people were captured, if we’d lost one of our special forces, there would be tough questions to answer about whether it was worth it,” he said.
– Last night, US Special Operations attempted to capture a senior ISIS commander and his wife in Syria. The rare raid didn't go as planned. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter today said that Abu Sayyaf fought back and was killed; the US troops involved were unharmed. They did manage to capture wife Umm Sayyaf, who is being held in Iraq. CNN notes that "Abu Sayyaf is not a name familiar to many ISIS watchers." Carter gave context: "Abu Sayyaf was involved in ISIL's military operations and helped direct the terrorist organization's illicit oil, gas, and financial operations as well." NBC News reports that a young Yazidi woman had apparently been enslaved by the couple; she was rescued. The raid, which took place in al-Amr, was carried out on orders of the president, which were given on the "unanimous recommendation" of his national security team. The AP notes this is only the second time troops have carried out a ground raid in Syria. A previous operation was aimed at rescuing James Foley and other Americans held hostage by the group.