US forces rescue Kurdish hostages facing 'imminent execution' by Isis

• Operation led to first American combat death in Iraq since 2011
• About 70 hostages freed from makeshift prison in Hawija area
• 
• A senior commander of the Kurdish peshmerga forces confirmed an operation had taken place but provided no further information. Photograph: Safin Hamed/AFP/Getty Images
• Martin Chulov and Fazel Hawramy in Erbil-Thursday 22 October 2015 
• Nearly 70 hostages facing “imminent mass execution” have been rescued from anIslamic State jail in a raid by Kurdish troops and US special forces in northern Iraq, according to US and Kurdish officials.
• The operation on Thursday also led to the first American combat death in Iraqsince 2011.
• The pre-dawn raid targeted a school near the northern town of Hawija that was believed to have been used as a base by senior military commanders from the group. There were unconfirmed reports that one of Isis’s most senior leaders, Nema Arbid Nayef al-Jabouri, was one of the targets of the raid.
  Jabouri, also known as Abu Fatima was not present when US, Kurdish and Iraqi troops descended on the small village of Fedeekha east of the town, Iraqi officials said.
  But commandos freed dozens of Kurdish Peshmerga fighters who were being held prisoner at the school after being captured by Isis earlier this year. 
  The Pentagon said the operation had been planned and launched at the urging of Kurdish officials after they received reports that the hostages “faced imminent mass execution”, the Pentagon said. 
  Locals near Hawija said the special forces troops arrived in Chinook helicopters, which landed at around 4am – about an hour after roads to the area had been bombed by coalition fighter jets.
  One US soldier was wounded and subsequently died after coming under fire from the Isis compound, the Pentagon said. Four Iraqi troops were also wounded.
  An Iraqi official told the Guardian that the Hawija raid had been launched after intelligence had pinpointed Jabouri’s location. Kurdish officials said they had uncovered specific information about the prisoners’ whereabouts and the fact that they were in immediate danger.
• “They believed there were up to 20 Isis commanders there,” the officials said. “They also knew the prisoners faced a big risk.
  In a statement, the Kurdistan Region Security Council said 69 prisoners had been freed, but said that “an initial examination showed there are no Kurds among the rescued hostages.” There was no immediate explanation for the discrepancy with other accounts of the raid.
  The raid is believed to be the first to be launched inside Iraq since US troops returned to the country to tackle Isis, which rampaged through northern and western Iraq from June last year.
  It is only the second to have taken place in the 14 months since then; in May, a US special forces operation in neighbouring Syria killed a senior Isis official responsible for oil trade, and captured his wife.
  Iraqi officials said Thursday’s operation was US led and supported by its own troops, who after more than a year of setbacks had in recent weeks begun to claw back losses in the centre of the country. The Baiji oil refinery, which Isis seized last summer, was returned to state control earlier on 17 October after a series of intensive battles over many months.
  In a statement, the Pentagon said that five members of Isis were captured and an undisclosed number of others killed. It claimed the raid had yielded a mass of intelligence information.
  Mohammed Mehdi, a spokesman for families of Kurdish prisoners held by Isis said: “Around 10 in the morning I was informed that there had been a raid and our American Brothers have freed around 70 peshmerga prisoners.” Mehdi’s son, Barzan was also a hostage. “I am very, very happy. I feel Barzan is already at home.”
  Additional reporting by Mais al-Baya’a and Shalaw Mohammed