Senior ISIL Leader Killed by Delta Force in Syria

The White House announced that on Friday night U.S. personnel based out of Iraq conducted an operation in al-Amr in eastern Syria to capture ISIL senior leader known as Abu Sayyaf. During the course of operation, Abu Sayyaf was killed when he engaged U.S. forces. A senior U.S. official told ABC today that the operation was conducted by the Delta Force special operators.

Abu Sayyaf was overseeing ISIL’s illicit oil and gas operations, vital to organization's finances, and was also involved in ISIL’s military operations. He was believed to be behind past kidnapping of U.S. hostages. CNN’s Barbara Starr reports that sources familiar with operations believe Abu Sayyaf was in contact with ISIL leader Al Baghdadi.

File photo: Wathiq Khuzaie/Reuters