WASHINGTON // An American serviceman was killed early on Thursday when Kurdish troops, backed by US special operations forces, stormed an ISIL prison in Iraq, freeing 70 hostages.
Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said five ISIL militants were captured and others killed in the raid on a compound near the city of Hawijah.
He said the American servicemember died after receiving medical attention for wounds suffered during the rescue mission.
“This operation was deliberately planned and launched after receiving information that the hostages faced imminent mass execution,” Mr Cook said.
“It was authorised consistent with our counter-ISIL effort to train, advise, and assist Iraqi forces.”
An intelligence official in the Kurdish-controlled city of Kirkuk said that “high value detainees” were believed to be among those captured.
“The aim of the operation was to free hostages in Daesh custody. They were detained in the former house of a local judge,” the official said.
Najmeddin Karim, the governor of Kirkuk province, confirmed on Thursday that a commando operation was carried out overnight but did not provide details.
Mr Cook added that US helicopters and special operations forces accompanied Kurdish peshmerga forces to the compound.
“Approximately 70 hostages were rescued, including more than 20 members of the Iraqi security forces,” he said. “In addition, the US recovered important intelligence about ISIL.”
A US official said separately that the rescued hostages included members of Iraqi security forces, local residents, and ISIL fighters held as suspected spies.
The relative of a Kurdish hostage said he had been informed of their rescue in a US-led raid.
Irfan Sadradeen, the uncle of Kurdish peshmerga fighter Meriwan Mawlud, said he was contacted by a peshmerga official who informed him about the operation.
Mr Sadradeen said he was told that paratroopers landed at a poultry farm, close to the home of the main sharia judge of Hawijah, where they launched their rescue.
“We are waiting for more information. A peshmerga official called us today confirming the news of the raid,” he said. “None of [the rescued have] arrived to this area yet but we are waiting for them.”
He had been told that 15 ISIL fighters were killed in the raid, he said.
General Lloyd Austin, the commander of all US forces in the Middle East, described the rescue operation as “complex and highly successful”.
“We commend and congratulate the brave individuals who participated in this successful operation that saved many lives, and we deeply mourn the loss of one of our own who died while supporting his Iraqi comrades engaged in a tough fight,” he said.
Meanwhile, a Hawijah resident said that ISIL’s leaders in the city had disappeared following the raid.
“Their offices are closed and nobody knows where they went,” the resident said.
“The group’s top Hawijah leader was detained and another senior leader too,” added another resident of the area.
Residents said several Chinook helicopters were involved in the raid and that several ISIL-run checkpoints in the area were targeted by air strikes.
Kurdish peshmerga forces control Kirkuk and have long worked closely with the US-led coalition.
In recent days, Iraqi security and allied paramilitary forces have been closing in on Hawijah from the south and west. The city lies about 240 kilometres north of Baghdad.
Kurdish peshmerga forces, backed by US-led coalition air strikes, have also moved several kilometres closer to Hawijah in recent weeks, pushing down from the north and east.
* Agencies
