not particularly well known in terms of isis leadership circles. a name the united states say was behind the money. was behind the oil. was used to make isis so much of its money and increasely involved in that military operation. we don t know his real name. abu sayyaf means the father of sayyaf and his wife who was captured who was killed in this raid umm means the mother of sayyaf. u.s. will look to provide why this man was so important because they endured an enormous risk in going to get to him. we are told this was a capture mission, not a kill mission. had it been a kill mission they could have simply used a drone. they were after intelligence and they were after the things he knew and the things his computers and phones perhaps had on them as well so complex indeed they decided to take this risk because they flew into one of the most dangerous parts of isis territory deep inside of syria. the oil field known to be a isis military base had a 3 to 5
during this raid. our thanks to nick. not much known about abu sayyaf s real identity. he is a an is i commander who goes by other names. he was also involved with the terror group s military operations and hostage taking operations. let s bring in a cnn correspondent and lieutenant general mark hertling. we are hearing from the national security council and from the pentagon that this was a key figure. if we turn this around and look at it from isis perspective, was he really a key figure? this is a big blow to the organization? well, victor, that is the big question here for many observers, experts, isis experts who have really monitored this group for the past couple of years. he was really unheard of until we heard the announcement about this raid yesterday.
so lots of questions about who he really is. did he maintain a low profile? is that why not many people know much about him? he really doesn t come across as one of the top names when it comes to the leadership of is circumstances that we know of. not wanted and not heard much about before. so there has been a lot of speculation among some experts saying potentially maybe there was a possibility he heard that u.s. forces were going after a different target, not necessarily him, a higher profile one. this, of course, is not yet confirmed, just some speculation about that. so lots of questions we are going to wait and hear. we will have to hear more from the u.s. administration and from the pentagon whether this was a major raid. the isis group in the past admits when it has lost members of the group, high ranking members. so we still have to wait and hear from isis. but as we know, victor, from the
so much of its money and increasingly involved in the military operations. we don t know his real name. abu sayyaf means the father of sayyaf and his wife who was captured. umm means the mother of sayyaf. u.s. will look to provide why this man was so important because they endured an enormous risk in going to get to him. we are told this was a capture mission, not a kill mission. had it been a kill mission they could have simply used a drone. they were after intelligence and the things he knew and the things his computers and phones perhaps had on them as well so complex indeed they decided to take this risk because they flew into one of the most dangerous parts of isis territory deep inside of syria. the oil field known to be a military isis base and had a perimeter around it of 3 to 5 millimeter around it. delta forces came on in. hand-to-hand fighting, bloody
they took the ramadi great mosque and raised the flag over a building there. then it seemed, according to sources there, that isis pulled back. what do we know about that? reporter: well, there are conflicting reports coming out of ramadi, victor, about the situation right now. it pretty much is still a very fluid situation. it does seem that they withdrew from the headquarters of the o proven shal government in ramadi and raised the flag there but it s unclear they did so because of the iraqi foreign security and we know they did send in some elite troops to try to push back isis or whether it is because the intensified air campaign that may have taken place over the past couple of days that made them withdraw from such obvious landmarks in the city. as we have seen over the past few months a serious termination from this group to gain ground in anbar and take over ramadi so