Abu Sayyaf was the ''

nom de guerre A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name (orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individua ...

'' of a senior leader of the

Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant An Islamic state is a State (polity), state that has a form of government based on sharia, Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical Polity, polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a t ...

(ISIL) who was described as overseeing gas and oil operations. United States authorities identified Abu Sayyaf's real name as Fathi Ben Awn Ben Jildi Murad al-Tunisi. Abu Sayyaf was killed on the night of May 15–16, 2015 while resisting capture during a

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

Delta Force The 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment–Delta (1st SFOD-D), referred to variously as Delta Force, Combat Applications Group (CAG), Army Compartmented Elements (ACE), "The Unit", or within Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), Task Fo ...

operation in eastern

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

.Barbara Starr, Laura Smith-Spark & Ray Sanc
Abu Sayyaf, key ISIS figure in Syria, killed in U.S. raid
CNN (May 17, 2015).

Death

The operation was conducted to try to capture him and his wife on suspicion of their involvement in, or "deep knowledge" of Islamic State hostage operations.

Kayla Mueller Kayla Jean Mueller (August 14, 1988 – February 6, 2015) was an American human rights activist and humanitarian aid worker from Prescott, Arizona. She was taken captive in August 2013 in Aleppo, Syria, after leaving a Doctors Without Borders ho ...

is reported to have been a "personal captive" of Abu Sayyaf. No U.S. soldiers were killed or injured during the operation. It was the first direct action ground raid targeting the militant group by U.S. soldiers inside Syria. (a previous U.S. ground operation in Syria was a rescue mission). Items, including several terabytes of data from laptops, cellphones and other material, were recovered from the scene and exploited for intelligence purposes. More information was collected in the raid than any other in United States special operations forces history. Among the objects found there are archaeological finds, which prove the involvement of IS in

illicit antiquities The antiquities trade is the exchange of antiquities and archaeological artifacts from around the world. This trade may be illicit or completely legal. The legal antiquities trade abides by national regulations, allowing for extraction of artifact ...

trade. The operation was launched from

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

, with the "full consent of Iraqi authorities." A senior administration official said that the administration had assessed it likely that Abu Sayyaf was in direct contact with Islamic State leader and self-proclaimed caliph,

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi ( ar, أبو بكر البغدادي, ʾAbū Bakr al-Baḡdādī; born Ibrahim Awad Ibrahim Ali Muhammad al-Badri al-Samarrai ( ar, إبراهيم عواد إبراهيم علي محمد البدري السامرائي, ʾIb ...

. Abu Sayyaf's wife, known by the nom de guerre "

Umm Sayyaf Nasrin As'ad Ibrahim, better known by the ''nom de guerre'' Umm Sayyaf, is the widow of Abu Sayyaf. She was captured in May 2015 by US Delta Force soldiers on the mission where they killed her husband, a suspected leader of the Islamic State. Dur ...

" and said to be an ISIL member, was captured during the operation. A young

Yazidi Yazidis or Yezidis (; ku, ئێزیدی, translit=Êzidî) are a Kurmanji-speaking endogamous minority group who are indigenous to Kurdistan, a geographical region in Western Asia that includes parts of Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Iran. The majo ...

woman who appeared to be held as a slave of the couple was freed. A senior administration official told CNN that Abu Sayyaf was a Tunisian citizen.

Hisham al-Hashimi Hisham al-Hashimi ( ar, هشام الهاشمي; 9 May 1973 – 6 July 2020) was an Iraqi historian and researcher in security and strategic affairs and extremist groups, and a specialist on the subject of the Islamic state and its supporters. He ...

, an Iraqi researcher on ISIL and security threats, said that al-Jabouri was "a close associate of chief ISIS spokesman

Abu Mohammed al-Adnani Taha Sobhi Falaha ( ar, طٰهٰ صُبْحِيِّ فَلَاحَةٍ, Ṭāhā Ṣobḥī Falāḥa; 1977 – 30 August 2016), known as Abu Muhammad al-Adnani al-Shami ( ar, أَبُو مُحَمَّدٍ ٱلْعَدْنَانِيُّ ٱلشَ� ...

References

{{Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant 2015 deaths Assassinated ISIL members