Unfortunately, Master Sgt. Joshua Wheeler, a native of Oklahoma and commando of the Delta Force, was killed in the middle of the battle.
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The footage, released by the Kurdistan Regional Government, shows USA, Kurdish and Iraqi soldiers ushering the cowering men through an IS-controlled prison.
The first pictures have been released of the daring Kurdish Peshmerga-US marines joint operation in Iraq last week that saved the lives of dozens of prisoners ISIL was about to execute. A US military official confirmed its source and authenticity to CNN.
On Saturday, Kurdish military officials put out a video that purportedly showed Thursday’s raid in Iraq.
The video ends with the soldiers patting down men.
A few hostages had blood on their clothing as they fled and gunfire could be heard as they escaped.
“After all Iraqi and Coalition forces departed the Daesh (a local name for ISIS) facility with the liberated Iraqis, a Coalition airstrike struck the facility and destroyed it”, a worldwide Coalition for Operation Inherent Resolve statement said.
A U.S. Special Forces commander on the ground made the decision to directly engage ISIS fighters during the overnight mission, the official said. He is the first American to die in combat since the USA launched its offensive against the Islamic State.
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A few hostages had blood on their clothing, and were walking and running in single file as soldiers beckoned them through rooms in the raid in northern Iraq. “We knew this because we saw freshly dug graves”, he told reporters Sunday in Baghdad.
