The Obama administration confirmed on April 20th that a rescue raid earlier this summer failed to locate a number of Americans believed held hostage by Islamic State militants in Syria.
The U.S. administration revealed that a secret, “substantial and complex” mission was green lighted after intelligence suggested captive Americans were being held at a specific site in Syria.
The U.S. says “several dozen” Special Forces were involved and helicopters, fixed-wing planes and surveillance aircraft were used in the attempt.
Upon arrival at the site in Syria, however, U.S. forces say they came under heavy attack by Islamic State fighters.
The U.S. says it killed a “good number” of IS fighters, but were unable to rescue the journalists as they were not in the suspected location.
After determining the hostages were not there, U.S. Special Forces terminated the raid and successfully retreated to waiting helicopters.
The U.S. military says it suffered no casualties in the failed raid with only one soldier suffering a slight injury.
The news comes following Wednesday’s release of a gruesome video appearing to show an Islamic State militant cut off the head of hostage reporter James Foley, who had been held by the terror group since he was captured in Syria in 2012.
In a press statement released by the White House and reported on ABC News, Lisa Monaco, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism wrote:
“The U.S. government had what we believed was sufficient intelligence, and when the opportunity presented itself, the President authorized the Department of Defense to move aggressively to recover our citizens. Unfortunately that mission was ultimately not successful because the hostages were not present. Given the need to protect our military’s operational capabilities, we will not be able to reveal the details of this operation. But the President could not be prouder of the U.S. forces who carried out this mission and the dedicated inte
