US forces free hostages from ISIL during raid in Iraq

ISIL have previously used hostages to seek out ransom payments but have also carried out massacres [Al Jazeera]

US special forces have carried out a raid on an Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group stronghold in Iraq and freed about 70 hostages, according to the defence officials.

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In a statement published on Thursday, the Pentagon said one soldier had died during the attack, which killed "a number of ISIL terrorists"

"This operation was deliberately planned and launched after receiving information that the hostages faced imminent mass execution," the statement read, adding the operation was carried out alongside Iraqi troops.

Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said at least 20 of those rescued were members of the Iraqi security forces and that officials were reviewing the identities of the others freed, adding civilians were among the group.

The death of a US soldier is the first in combat since US troops withdrew from Iraq in 2010.
Five ISIL members were captured during the clash, and four Kurdish peshmerga fighters were wounded, according to US officials.

'Test run'
Al Jazeera's Rosiland Jordan reporting from Washington DC said there were suggestions the central government in Baghdad did not know the operation was taking place until "they started receiving phone calls from reporters".
"We don't know if there is a larger battle at hand to take Hawija from ISIL, which it has been holding for about a year and three months.

"This may have been a test run, or there is an idea that there was a mass execution looming is why the US provided support to Peshmerga, " Jordan said.
ISIL seized large swathes of Iraq during an offensive in the summer of 2014 and with its military successes it has captured Iraqi and Kurdish regional troops and civilians.
The armed group has used its hostages to seek out ransom payments but has also carried out massacres against prisoners.

Source: Al Jazeera

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