October 23, 2015

Early yesterday, October 22, U.S. Special Forces and allied Kurdish troops rescued 69 captives from an Islamic State (also known as ISIS) compound in the northern Iraqi town of Hawija. The prisoners, like so many others in the hands of the Islamic State terrorist group, were about to be killed in a mass execution. Kurdish security forces—known as peshmerga (Kurdish for those who confront death)—asked for help to rescue the prisoners, and the Special Forces responded.

Five U.S. helicopters—similar to the Marine helicopter pictured here—flew U.S. and Kurdish forces to and from the raid in Hawija. On the return trip, the helicopters also carried 69 freed prisoners and 5 Islamic State captives. © Summer Dowding, Department Of Defense

To aid in the fight against the Islamic State, a small number of U.S. troops deployed (were sent) to Iraq in an advisory role last year. Anticipating the need to expand that role, the number of U.S. troops in Iraq has since steadily increased to some 3,500. Thursday’s raid marked the first official time that American troops had fought alongside local forces against the Islamic State. The rescue mission was an overwhelming success, but it cost the life of one American, a 39-year-old Army master sergeant from Oklahoma. The U.S. soldier’s death in action was the first in Iraq since the Iraq War ended in 2011, and the first U.S. combat fatality in the fight against the Islamic State. More than 20 Islamic State militants died in the raid, and 5 others were captured. American officials were quick to point out that the raid was an isolated rescue mission, a “unique circumstance,” and not a change in tactics.

Hawija lies in Iraq’s northern Kurdish region, some 30 miles south of the city of Kirkuk. Kurdish and Iraqi forces have been battling Islamic State militants in the area since 2014. Many thousands of people have died in the area’s fighting, and many others have become prisoners of the Islamic State. As is well known by now, people captured by the Islamic State are often massacred.