Officials said Wheeler, a 20-year army veteran and Oklahoma native, was killed on Thursday when he and dozens of U.S. special operations troops and Iraqi forces raided a compound near the city of Kirkuk, freeing approximately 70 Iraqi prisoners.
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A number of IS militants were killed in the early morning special forces raid near Hawija, according to the Pentagon.
The Hawijah raid marked an apparent break with the usual role of USA forces, who are in Iraq to support government forces but do not directly engage in combat in line with Obama’s “no boots on the ground” policy.
But Carter said it was likely not a one-off, noting that a “significant cache” of intelligence had been retrieved. “The intention was to rescue peshmerga taken hostage by ISIL”, said the source in the Security Council of Kurdistan, a semi-autonomous region of northern Iraq.
Up to 69 hostages, including at least 20 members of the Iraqi security forces, were freed from captivity in Thursday’s raid.
The operation near Hawijah was part of a broader US-led campaign that began in June of past year targeting the Islamic State group, which has sought to carve an Islamic caliphate out of large parts of Iraq and Syria.
Wheeler was a heavily decorated soldier who earned 11 Bronze Star medals and numerous other commendations.
Defense Secretary Ash Carter applauded Wheeler as a hero, saying he rushed into a firefight to defend his Kurdish partners although the plan called for the Kurds to do the fighting. “There was not a lot of time”, said one USA official.
He joined the military in 1995 as an infantryman in Company C, 1st Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment in Fort Lewis, Wash., and later moved to the famed 75th Ranger Regiment, where he served as an infantryman, rifle-team leader, squad leader, weapons-squad leader and anti-tank section leader.
He received the Purple Heart posthumously.
His body is being returned to the United States on Saturday.
The defense chief also noted that Wheeler’s death “reminds us of the dangers that the coalition forces confront in Iraq, but also of the important assistance they provide local forces as they lead the fight against a barbaric enemy”.
The operation was launched “after receiving information that the hostages faced imminent mass execution”, he said.
The administration has been clear that the U.S. mission in Iraq is purely to train and advise Iraqi forces.
“They were in need of protection”.
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Scott Sharp, who graduated from Muldrow High School with Wheeler in 1994, said what he remembers most is that everybody liked him, he was “that guy who was friendly to everyone”.
