U.S. drones directed by the intelligence and special operations communities are targeting high-value Islamic State leaders in Syria in a separate mission from the broader fight against the terrorist group.
Senior officials told the Washington Post that the strikes are being carried out by Joint Special Operations Command and guided by intelligence gathered by the CIA.
These strikes conducted outside of the military’s fight against the Islamic State are credited with the death of Junaid Hussain, a British-born hacker who became a top cyber-recruiter for the terrorist group.
When asked last week about Hussain’s death, Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, told reporters there had been an uptick in strikes in Syria against Islamic State leaders in the previous days.
“We have conducted a number of strikes over the past 72 hours in Syria specifically at ISIL leadership,” Davis said on Thursday.
The secret joint intelligence and special operations mission shows a “rising anxiety” about the dangers posed by the Islamic State and the ineffectiveness of conventional means to defeat the terrorist group, the Post reported.
Still, the program represents only a handful of the almost 2,500 coalition strikes in Syria over the past year, the article said.
