What Really Happened When US Forces Entered Syria in July?

One story with multiple versions. (1). Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby confirmed Wednesday night that US Special Forces attempted to free James Foley, the American journalist beheaded by ISIS, earlier this summer, but Foley and other American hostages believed to be at the location inside Syria were not there. Several dozen Special Forces members landed inside Syria at a location where intelligence had indicated the Americans were being held. The elite group went in by helicopter, backed up by combat, surveillance, and intelligence aircraft, CNN reported. When they got to the facility, they engaged ISIS fighters on the ground and killed several of them. Though one of the Special Forces members was wounded, none was killed. The Pentagon would not say how its intelligence was obtained. "That is about as dangerous as it gets," CNN's Barbara Starr said of the operation, noting that had the Special Forces troops been discovered, they risked attack by the Bashar al-Assad regime or by ISIS itself. A White House statement said President Obama authorized the action because the national security team thought the hostages were in increasing danger. Pentagon spokesman Kirby explained : "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 harm's way to try and bring our citizens home. The United States government uses the full breadth of our military, intelligence and diplomatic capabilities to bring people home whenever we can. 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." It is unclear from Kirby's report how many Americans the special forces attempted to rescue in Syria because the officials would not provide an exact number, but other unnamed US officials said Foley was one of at least four Americans held in Syria. Like Foley, two others are thought to have been kidnapped by ISIS. The fourth, freelance journalist Austin Tice, disappeared in Syria in August 2012 and is thought to be held by al-Assad forces. Administration officials would not say specifically when or where the operation took place, citing the need to protect operational details in order to preserve the ability to carry out future rescue missions. They did say that nearly every branch of the military was involved and that the Special Forces on the ground were supported from the air by fixed wing, rotary, and surveillance aircraft. General Michael Hayden, former director of the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency, told Newsmax that it is impossible to dissuade or deter ISIS from brutally executing hostages : "We really did get a chance yesterday to look at absolute evil in its face. It's a reminder of what it is we're dealing with here in the Middle East." ~~~~~ (2). If the above explanation of the raid seems vague, a new version was released several hours ago by the New York Times, whose reporters are on Martha's Vineyard, where President Obama is vacationing. Here is the latest official account of the Special Forces raid into Syria to rescue American hostages, as told by the NYT : "A secret nighttime military mission authorized by President Obama to rescue Americans held captive in Syria failed early this summer when a team of two dozen Delta Force commandos raided an oil refinery in the northern part of the country but found after a firefight with Islamic militants that there were no hostages to be saved....The officials - speaking a day after the ISIS posted a video showing the American journalist James Foley being beheaded - described what they called a “complicated operation” in which the commandos were dropped by helicopter into Syrian territory....The Army commandos fought their way to the spot where they believed that ISIS was hiding the hostages. But when the team swooped in, the hostages were gone. “We’re not sure why they were moved,” a Defense Department official said. “By the time we got there, it was too late.” The official said it may have been “a matter of hours, perhaps a day or two” since the hostages had been there. One of the American commandos was slightly wounded in the skirmish, which lasted several minutes before American aircraft flew the soldiers to safety. At least one of the aircraft came under fire, but all members of the team were evacuated successfully. The administration officials said they believed a number of the terrorists were killed. The officials revealed the mission in a conference call with reporters, in which they spoke on the condition of anonymity....It was the first time that the United States government had acknowledged that American forces had operated inside Syria since the civil war there began. Officials declined to say exactly how many hostages the commandos were trying to rescue or to provide the names of the people who they believed were being held captive by the militants. United States intelligence agencies had been collecting information on the suspected location of the hostages, a Defense Department official said. The goal was to rescue Mr. Foley, officials said, although there was no specific intelligence that he was being held where the raid took place. It was a developing operation. They would move them periodically. But we decided to act then because we believed we had fidelity on their location, and we were well aware of the severity of the threats.” Officials said the breadth of the intelligence gave them confidence to go ahead with the rescue. The mission was conducted by a joint force, officials said, which included members from all of the military services. The Delta Force commandos were supported overhead by helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft. "We put the best of the United States military in harm’s way to try and bring our citizens home,” said Rear Admiral John F. Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary. Intelligence is not “an exact science,” the officials in the conference call said, describing a “layered procedure” in which the agencies built a picture of where they thought the hostages might be. “It builds over time,” one senior administration official said. “We never lost sight of the plight of these hostages.” Families have been informed of the latest rescue attempt, the officials said, but did not say when they were told. ~~~~~ (3). The UK Daily Telegraph added more detail in its coverage, saying the secret US mission targeted a jihadist base known as the 'Osama bin Laden Camp,' according to Telegraph local Syrian sources. The Telegraph reported that the Pentagon revealed Wednesday that two dozen special operations troops had launched the rescue attempt in early July, but that they had failed to find the hostages, and were forced to pull out after a firefight with ISIS militants. Messages posted on Facebook and Twitter around the time that the raid would have taken place, by Syrians living in the area, have revealed further details about the dramatic rescue effort, according to the Telegraph, which said it cannot independently verify this information, although many of the details appear similar to the information later revealed by the Pentagon. The Facebook message was posted at 3 a.m. on July 4, by one activist who reported an attack on a military base belonging to Daesh - the Syrian derogatory term for ISIS - in the town of al-Kirshi : "Unknown jets have destroyed all of Daesh's anti-aircraft systems. They destroyed all the MAN-PADS at their Osama bin Laden camp." The two Delta Force teams landed specially modified Black Hawk helicopters at an oil refinery near the site of the raid just south of the Euphrates river, where they came under heavy fire, according to a former intelligence official. The Facebook message said: "Commandos dropped from silent helicopters. They cut the supply road to the Daesh base, the al-Kirshi road." On Wednesday, the Pentagon said that a number of militants, but no Americans, were killed. One American sustained a minor injury when an aircraft was hit. The Facebook post claims that five ISIS militants were killed. ~~~~~ Dear readers, there are discrepancies -- silent action or heavy arms fighting / a mission to rescue hostages or to destroy ISIS armaments and take back an oil refinery / with or without the agreement of al-Assad. Has Obama agreed with US military to cross into Syria? Has he cut a deal with al-Assad? Has the Obama White House spun a story, with Pentagon help at a high-eschelon PR level, based on facts unrelated to James Foley, in order to try to bolster Obama's image in light of the horrific ISIS beheading video? Nothing is clear in this jumbled report -- except that, Admiral Kirby notwithstanding, US Delta Forces operate as close to "exact science" as military forces can get.