Erbil, Kurdistan Region—Kurdish and American commandos raided an Islamic State (ISIS) base near Hawija Friday night, killing a number of militants and capturing others, Kirkuk police said. Brigadier Sarhad Qadir of the Kirkuk police told Rudaw that at 11:00 pm Friday night Kurdish commandos backed by American special forces stormed an ISIS court in the town of Riyadh east of Hawija where they killed a number of militants in the ensuing firefight. Brig. Qadir said some militants were captured in the raid and Hussein Umair Assafi, a commander of the radical group was killed. He added that more information on the raid is expected to be released by the special operations team. It is believed the raid was to free Kurdish Peshmerga soldiers from ISIS captivity. Brig. Qadir did not say if any Peshmerga was rescued. Helicopter gunships participated in the raid and flew the commandos to the ISIS base. This is the second special commando operation against ISIS in two months. In a similar operation in October American and Kurdish special forces stormed an ISIS prison in Hawija and freed 70 hostages. One American soldier was killed by ISIS fire during the raid.
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