Coalition forces, including American military operatives, killed a senior ISIS leader when conducting an operation on the Iraqi-Syrian border Wednesday, officials said.
Killed
was Sami Jassim Mohammed Al-Jabouri, known by the nom de guerre Haji
Hamad, said the Kurdistan Region Security Council. His reported death is
the latest victory in the coalition's ongoing fight against the
terrorist organization's financial staying power.
Jabouri
was responsible for ISIS operations regarding natural resources in Iraq
and Syria. He and an aide were killed in the operation. The United
States has not verified Jabouri was the man killed in the mission but
verified he was a key figure in ISIS oil operations.
All coalition forces returned safely, the Kurdish statement said.
A US defense official confirmed to CNN
an operation against an ISIS target and said it was coordinated with the
Iraq government and the Kurdistan Regional Government forces.
The
Pentagon's secret expeditionary targeting force conducted a mission
Thursday to capture an ISIS operative, according to the defense
official. It appears the man the team went after may have killed himself
rather than be captured, but that has not been verified, the official
said.
ETF operations are conducted
by US special operations forces and rarely acknowledged openly. But this
time officials acknowledged the operation took place after the Kurds
disclosed it. Jabouri was a key figure in ISIS oil operations. But the
official said the mission was to capture an individual for intelligence
reasons.
"We are assessing the
results of the operation and will provide additional information as and
when appropriate," the US official said.
The mission took place near Qaim near the Iraqi-Syrian border, where there is an ISIS presence, the official said.
The Kurds have been battling with ISIS over control of oil fields. Less than two weeks ago, Kurdish forces repelled an ISIS hostage taking at an oil field near the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk.
Kurds killed the attackers and freed the hostages, according to witnesses.
The
Khabbaz oil field produces around 20,000 barrels of oil per day and is
situated between areas disputed by opposing fighters from the Iraqi
Kurdish Peshmerga forces and ISIS.
The
standoff was the second armed attack on an energy facility in the
Kirkuk region Sunday, after an earlier deadly attack on a nearby gas
compression facility owned by the same company.
Four
staff members were killed and another was injured during that attack on
the gas facility, known as AB, in the Bajwan area in northwestern
Kirkuk, police Gen. Sarhad Qader said.
Meanwhile, US forces have been striking
ISIS targets in Libya to further erode its territorial potential natural
resources gains in north Africa.
U.S.
Special Forces and surveillance flights are operating on the ground and
over Libya as the West moves to boost security operations in the
country to bolster Libya's increasingly desperate fight against ISIS.
It has been getting hard for ISIS to finance its war machine due to its shrinking territory and crippled oil business.
By April of this year, ISIS' monthly revenue had fallen by 30% -- down from an estimated $80 million a month in mid-2015.
ISIS
has ceded more than 22% of its territory to Kurdish, Syrian and Iraqi
forces over the past 19 months, according to IHS. During that time, the
population living under ISIS rule has fallen from 9 million to 6
million.
To offset those losses
ISIS has halved its fighters' salaries, increased taxes and fees for
people remaining under its control and resorted more to such tactics as
kidnapping for ransoms and smuggling stolen archeological artifacts.
SIS is so strapped for cash it has also started giving people accused of
violating Sharia law the option of paying a cash fine instead of
suffering severe physical punishments, reports IHS, which monitors the
conflict.
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