US forces attempted to rescue journalist James Foley and other American hostages during a secret mission into Syria and exchanged gunfire with Islamic State militants only to discover the captives were not there, officials said on Wednesday.
The mission, authorised by President Barack Obama based on US intelligence, took place earlier this summer. Officials disclosed the mission a day after a video surfaced showing a militant beheading the 40-year-old Foley.
Officials would not say exactly when the operation took place but said it was not in the last couple of weeks. US special forces and other military personnel, backed up by helicopters and planes, dropped into the target zone in Syria and engaged in a firefight with Islamic State militants.
The incident, in which a number of militants were killed, appeared to be the first direct ground engagement between the United States and Islamic State militants, who Obama sees as a growing threat in the Middle East.
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Lisa Monaco, Obama's top counterterrorism aide, said in a statement that Obama authorised the mission because it was his national security team's assessment that the hostages were in danger with each passing day. "The US government had what we believed was sufficient intelligence, and when the opportunity presented itself, the president authorised the Department of Defense to move aggressively to recover our citizens. Unfortunately, that mission was ultimately not successful because the hostages were not present," said Monaco.
Among the hostages sought in the mission was Steven Sotloff, the American journalist who was threatened with beheading in the same video that showed the grisly execution of Foley. Several other captives were also sought, a senior administration official said.
The families of the hostages were informed about the operation "but only when it was operationally safe to do so," a senior administration official said.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said the mission was focused on a "particular captor network" within the Islamic State militant group. He did not provide specifics. "As we have said repeatedly, the United States government is committed to the safety and well-being of its citizens, particularly those suffering in captivity. In this case, we put the best of the United States military in harms' way to try and bring our citizens home," he said. He added: "The United States will not tolerate the abduction of our people, and will work tirelessly to secure the safety of our citizens and to hold their captors accountable."
(Reporting by Missy Ryan and Steve Holland; Additional reporting by Jason Szep and Warren Strobel; Editing by Peter Cooney, Bernard Orr and Eric Beech)
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