American commando killed in a raid to release ISIS prisoners in Iraq. Washington Post.

An ISIS flag in Iraq. Washington Post/AP.

An American commando has died in a raid against ISIS in Iraq that released at least 70 prisoners. Washington Post. The soldier killed was the first to die in combat in Iraq since the 2011 withdrawal. The Army's Delta force, along with a squad of elite Kurdish fighters, attacked an ISIS prison in the town of Hawijah. Dozens of Kurdish Peshmerga were suspected of being held in that prison and were scheduled to be executed. When the raid was completed, no Peshmerga were found, but dozens of other prisoners, including at least 20 that were with the Iraqi security forces, were released. 5 ISIS fighters were captured and an additional 10 to 20 were killed. The Delta operator was killed as he was entering the building. As of this writing his name has not been released. Three or four Kurdish fighters were wounded in the raid as well. The government of Iraq had not been informed of the raid and are now furious that they were not consulted. Questions have also been raised about the quality of intelligence the raid relied on since the goal was to release Peshmergea fighters but no fighters were found at the prison.

My Comment:

Despite the casualty, it seems like this was a fairly successful raid. Though the raid did not accomplish its main goal of releasing Peshmerga fighters, they did release a large number of other prisoners. Some of those prisoners were Iraqi soldiers. I can hardly think of a worse fate then being a prisoner of ISIS. The best you could hope for is being released after someone payed an exorbitant ransom for you. The worst case is a long period of beatings, false executions and eventually, a creative and horrifying death. Sparing anyone from this fate, no matter who they are, is a worthy outcome. 

Still, it sounds like there were some things that could have been handled better. It sounds like the intelligence that the raid relied on was way off. Instead of rescuing a group of politically important Peshmerga fighters, the raid released what seems like a random group of prisoners. Though it is obviously a good thing that these people were released, whoever they were, it means that these Peshmerga fighters are still in the hands in ISIS. They were slatted to be executed already, but now that they know that the US is gunning for their release, they may just execute them as soon as possible, just out of spite. 

I also wonder why Iraq wasn't told of this raid. Obviously the Kurds were because they were a major part of it, but you would think that the Iraqi government would have been told. I can think of a few reasons why they wouldn't have been. First, there may have been the potential for leaks that could have put the raid in jeopardy. I haven't heard of any high ranking traitors in the Iraqi government, but given how corrupt the government is there, I wouldn't be surprised. The other possibility is that this was a punishment for the Iraqis. Recently, Iraq has been putting out feelers towards the Russian government. The Iraqis want the same kind of intervention that the Syrians are getting and that is not making the U.S. government happy. It's possible that Iraq wasn't informed of this raid just due to bitter feelings over Iraq's Russia links. Of course it is possible that they just screwed up and forgot to tell them, which wouldn't be the first time something stupid like that happened. 

I haven't said much about the soldier who died. Obviously it is a tragedy, especially when it is one of our best soldiers that has died. The fact that he was a member of Delta Force means that just by definition he was one of our best and brightest. His loss is a blow. He is also the first soldier lost in Iraq since 2011 and the first one killed by ISIS, unless you count all the deaths caused by ISIS's former organization, al-Qaeda in Iraq. My hope is that he is the last one to die, but I'm not optimistic. 

As for the prisoners, I wonder if any of them were Westerners. ISIS has a couple of Western prisoners. A while ago I wrote about a Norwegian man and a Chinese man who were being held by ISIS. Since then I have heard nothing about their fates. I would think that if they were among the prisoners released, we would have heard about it now. Indeed, I assumed when I first heard about this raid earlier today that they were the main targets instead of the Peshmerga. But apparently they were not. 

So that begs the question, what on earth happened to these two men? When I first heard about the story I assumed that they were going to be executed right away. None of the countries involved would negotiate with ISIS, and I have heard nothing of the ransom being paid. My guess is that they are still being held in Syria, but you would have thought something would have developed by now. Perhaps they were killed in an air raid? Anything is possible at this point... 

Hopefully, Delta Force and the US military can use what they learned in this raid against ISIS in the future. Perhaps if they get the intelligence, they can launch a raid to rescue the two men being held by ISIS. Either way, these ISIS prisons should be a priority target. ISIS has a terrible track record of abusing and executing their prisoners. It's also a propaganda tool for them as well. We should do whatever it takes to find these prisons and shut them down...