A recent National Security Council (NSC) press release revealed that a recent US special operations raid in Syria killed Abu Sayyaf, a senior Islamic state leader of ISIS. White House NSC spokesperson Bernadette Meehan revealed that the raid also secured important intelligence on the terrorist organization's operations, communication, and fund raising system.

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As CNN reported, key ISIS commander Salafi cleric Mohammed al-Shalab, more commonly known as Abu Sayyaf, was killed in al-Omar amid heavy gunfire after he resisted arrest by US special forces. The terror organization leader was said to have possessed a central financial role in ISIS operations. He reportedly helped direct the organization's illicit gas and oil operations, effectively becoming a source of financial assets that helped ISIS carry out their plans of oppression and destruction.

Abu Sayyaf was a Tunisian whose wife, Umm Sayyaf, is also purported to be an ISIS operative. He was also thought to be quite close to ISIS head Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. An NBC news analyst commented on the fact that before this event, the world has never even heard of Sayyaf or his wife. He went on to say: "There are a variety of reasons that could account for this, not the least of which is that ISIS obviously doesn't have much to gain by publicizing the identity of the person in charge of their underground oil trade."

US military officials said they were hoping to capture Sayyaf alive all throughout the pre-planned mission so he could still be interrogated. Fortunately, hopes of interrogation are not lost because his wife is supposedly being held somewhere in Iraq, far away from other prisoners.

The Delta Force commandos, the special forces tasked with the operation, used UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters, as well as a V-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft to penetrate Eastern Syria from within Iraq. This marks the United States' first known successful covert operation in Syria after last year's failed rescue mission to the nation's northeastern border.

TagsAbu Sayyaf, ISIS, us special forces