The United States has captured an operator for the Islamic State extremist group during a helicopter raid in northern Syria, the US military said.
The operator was identified as Abu Halil al-Fad'ani who was “assessed to have relationships throughout the ISIS network in the region,” the US Central Command said in a statement on Monday (September 25).
“His capture on Saturday increases the chance that US counterterrorism operations there will be able to target additional members of the group,” command spokesman Lt. Col. Troy Garlock said.
The United States has deployed nearly 900 troops in Syria which are meant for countering the remnants of the Islamic State group.
The capture of the terrorist was reported as the US-backed Kurdish-led forces imposed a curfew after persistent skirmishes with rival Arab militiamen.
According to reports from Syrian media and activists, the Syrian forces had imposed the curfew on Monday in several towns in Deir el-Zour province, including in Ziban, close to the Iraqi border where the Americans are based.
There have been hundreds of US troops posted since 2015. The oil-rich province has Syria's largest oil fields.
Syria has been reeling under a 12-year civil war that has claimed the lives of half-million people.
President Bashar Assad-led Syrian government in Damascus considers the Kurdish-led forces as secessionist fighters and has denounced their alliance with the US in the war against the Islamic State terrorists.
(With AP inputs)
