(MENAFN- The Peninsula) US commandos killed a senior Islamic State group leader in a nighttime raid into Syria, US officials said Saturday, as IS jihadists seized the northern part of Syria's ancient Palmyra.
Across the borders, IS fought Iraqi army reinforcements in the western city of Ramadi, while Turkey said its armed forces shot down a Syrian helicopter which violated its air space.
US special forces raided Al-Omar in east Syria on Friday night to capture senior IS leader Abu Sayyaf and his wife Umm Sayyaf, US officials said.
The bold operation, with elite commandos striking at IS's inner circle, was a rare use of "boots on the ground" by the United States, which has fought the jihadists almost entirely from the air.
White House national security spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan said Abu Sayyaf, who played a senior role in IS's lucrative oil operations, "was killed when he engaged US forces."
His wife was being held in military detention in Iraq.
Al-Omar, one of the largest oil fields in Syria, lies in oil-rich Deir Ezzor province. Like much of Deir Ezzor, Al-Omar remains under IS control.
US Secretary of Defence Ash Carter called the operation a "significant blow" to IS.
Meehan said US forces based out of Iraq had conducted the raid "with the full consent" of Iraqi authorities.
US forces suffered no casualties, American officials said, without giving details on the number of troops involved.
Members of the elite Delta special operations unit descended on Sayyaf's compound in Black Hawk helicopters and Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft, a defence official told AFP.
In a firefight, US troops killed "about a dozen" armed militants, the official said, on condition of anonymity. At one point, fighting took place "at very close quarters, and there was hand-to-hand combat."
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