USA carried out failed operations to free Americans in Syria says US Department of Defense

(IraqiNews.com) The Department of Defense (Pentagon) said that American forces had recently carried out an air and ground rescue operation for the Liberation of a “number” of American hostages held by the militants of the organization of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in Syria, but they failed to find them.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said that the operation focused on “certain detention network” within the organization of the Islamic state, adding that the operation failed because the hostages “were not in the target site.”

Kirby did not mention the time frame of the operation, but Lisa Monaco, aide to President Barack Obama’s counter-terrorism affairs, confirmed in a statement that Obama gave permission to perform the task, “earlier this summer.”

The White House or the Pentagon did not specify any of the identities of the hostages, who were being targeted in the operation, or whether, including the American journalist James Foley, who was beheaded by the organization of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant in retaliation for American air strikes against its fighters in Iraq.