US Special Forces Have Captured An ISIS Fighter

Nice work.

US special forces operating in northern Iraq have—for perhaps just the second time—taken an ISIS fighter into custody. According to a report from The Daily Beast, the unidentified fighter is being questioned as part of the ongoing efforts by the US and western allies to gather substantial intelligence about the Islamic State:

Officials said that the latest Iraqi prisoner is also being interrogated by U.S. authorities after being picked up by a U.S. expeditionary targeting force, which the U.S. military deployed to Iraq late last year to “put even more pressure” on ISIS, according to Secretary of Defense Ash Carter.

The current prisoner is being held in the Iraqi city of Erbil, according to a report in the Daily Mail, and will likely undergo interrogation for several weeks. The same report also stated this was operative was of some importance—”significant”—possibly from the upper reaches of ISIS command. The Daily Mail noted it was unlikely this prisoner would eventually see transfer to Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

This capture is among the first fruits of efforts by what Defense Secretary Ash Carter called a “specialized expeditionary targeting force” when he announced the force’s deployment to Iraq. The force is there to assist the Iraqis as well as Kurdish Peshmerga fighters in eventually driving ISIS from Iraq, if possible. 

According to a report in the New York Times, the prisoner will likely be turned over to the Iraqis or Kurds once interrogators feel they’ve gotten the information they need. 

Given that it’s not unknown for either force to execute ISIS prisoners outright, the detainee may wish America still shipped prisoners off to Cuba on a regular basis.