CIA led mystery Syria raid that killed terrorist leader

[babylonsister]

CIA led mystery Syria raid that killed terrorist leader

By Jonathan S. Landay and Nancy A. Youssef | McClatchy Newspapers


WASHINGTON — A CIA-led raid on a compound in eastern Syria killed an al Qaida in Iraq commander who oversaw the smuggling into Iraq of foreign fighters whose attacks claimed thousands of Iraqi and American lives, three U.S. officials said Monday.

The body of Badran Turki Hishan al Mazidih, an Iraqi national who used the nom de guerre Abu Ghadiya, was flown out of Syria on a U.S. helicopter at the end of the operation Sunday by CIA paramilitary officers and special forces, one U.S. official said.

"It was a successful operation," a second U.S. official told McClatchy. "The bottom line: This was a significant blow to the foreign fighter pipeline between Syria and Iraq."

A senior U.S. military officer said the raid was launched after human and technical intelligence confirmed that al Mazidih was present at the compound close to Syria's border with Iraq. "The situation finally presented itself," he said.

The three U.S. officials, who all spoke on the condition of anonymity because the operation was classified, declined to reveal other details of the raid. A CIA spokesman declined to comment.

The senior military officer said that U.S. intelligence had been tracking al Mazidih for some time, and that "the more we learned about him and how he works" the higher he rose on the U.S. most-wanted list.

more...

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/251/story/54828.html

[hobbit709]

1. Amazing how the dead are always "terrorists"

After all, they can't refute you.

[dipsydoodle]

2. Sounds like

Brothers Grimm to me.

[leftchick]

3. It was a home in a village

Not a compound! I call this a CYA bullshit explanation for the slaughter of these people including several children. The Syrian defense minister is correct, The US committed a terrorist act of aggression.



Syrians mourn over the coffins of their relatives killed in a US military raid in the village of Al-Sukkariya, on the Syria-Iraq border. Egypt slammed a US airborne raid on a Syrian village close to the Iraqi border in which several people were believed to have died as a "serious violation of Syria's sovereignty.
"(AFP/Ramzi Haidar)

[shadowknows69]

4. I thought the CIA was supposed to wage their little wars quietly

Hellicopter gunships don't for a quiet operation make.

[peacetalksforall]

5. The U.S. Most Wanted List. The FBI Most Wanted List. The CIA Most Wanted List.

The Pentagon Most Wanted List. The Blackwater Most Wanted List.

How many lists are there?

Since when did the CIA start leading (what our political leaders call) war efforts?

Who did the CIA lead - the military or Blackwater? Or Iraqi soldiers? Or Israeli soldiers? Or coalition soldiers?

Inquiring citizens want to know who led who onto foreign soil and against the rules of war and an invasion of boundaries?

Are Syrians dead or are the enemies families dead? Who is the enemy?

Inquiring citizens want to know how if this is a fourth invasion of a country - Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria?

Inquiring citizens want to know if our leaders are secretly using their new, but not secret map for their New Middle East which has new borders according to their own desires.

Instead of filing criminal charges against the 'perpetrators' of 9-11, we go after all nations of the Middle East, except Israel and Jordan - for now.

[leftchick]

6. Do they stoke the anti-americanism and breed hate by these actions?

It seems intentional to me. Their overt recruiting of new "terrorists" plays well into the US theme of forever wars.



Angry men shout anti-American slogans and carry a banner reading: 'Down with America, the enemy of the Arab nation,' during the funeral procession of Syrians who died a day before when U.S. military helicopters launched an attack on Syrian territory in the Sukkariyeh Farm near the town of Abu Kamal in an area of farms and brick factories about five miles (eight kilometers) inside the Syrian border, on Monday, Oct. 27, 2008. Blood stained the dusty earth Monday as anguished villagers on the outskirts of farming town near Iraq buried loved ones they say were killed by an American helicopter raid inside Syria.
(AP Photo/Hussein Malla)