It has been disclosed that a recent Israeli airstrike in Syria has killed a senior Hezbollah commander who supported plan one of the most aggressive and most cosmopolitan attacks against American troops during the Iraq War, according to a senior U.S. defense official.
It was disclosed that Ali Mussa Daqduq had been captured by U.S. forces following the 2007 raid in which militants posing as an American security team killed five U.S. soldiers. But he was later released by the Iraqi government.
A Pentagon spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and the Israeli embassy referred questions to its military, which also did not immediately respond.
According to reports the raid which was big and elaborate was aided by Daqduq and was carried out at a U.S.-Iraqi military complex in Karbala on Jan. 20, 2007. It has been disclosed that some group of men who appeared as American military security team were wearing military combat fatigues, carrying U.S. weapons and some speaking English – convinced security to let them through several checkpoints and right up to a building where U.S. and Iraqi troops were working.
The reports have also indicated that the facility was part of the different compounds that have been known as oint Security Stations in Iraq, where U.S. troops lived and worked with the Iraqi police and soldiers. The officials stated that more than two dozen US soldiers were in the Provisional Joint Coordination Center, or PJCC, when the militants arrived, including several in the barracks room where the troops were living.
Describing how the attack was carried out it was explained that the militants surrounded the building, using grenades and explosives to breach the entrance. One American soldier was killed by a grenade. Once inside, the militants captured two U.S. soldiers inside the building and two others outside the building, before speeding away in waiting SUVs.
After the attack, a US helicopter was used to attack the convoy which prompted the militants to abandon the vehicles and escape by foot. It was stated the militants successfully shot and killed the four U.S. captives at some point during the escape.
According to the officials, the four soldiers shot by their captors were identified as 1st Lt. Jacob Noel Fritz, 25; Capt. Brian Scott Freeman, 31; Pfc. Shawn Patrick Falter, 25; and Spc. Johnathan Bryan Chism, 22. The soldier killed by the grenade at the compound was identified as Pfc. Johnathon Miles Millican, 22.
In the aftermath of the attack, U.S. officials presumed the militants had direct support from Iran, given the level of coordination, training and intelligence required to carry it out.
In an operation which was a success, the U.S. forces captured Daqduq in March 2007 and soon achieved a breakthrough in proving that Iran’s Quds Force, an honoured unit of the country’s Revolutionary Guard, was involved in planning the Karbala raid. Under questioning, Daqduq said the operation resulted from direct support and training by the Quds Force.
Daqduq was held by the U.S. military in Iraq for several years but then handed over to Iraqi authorities in December 2011, when the U.S. military mission ended. He was the last inmate handed over before U.S. troops pulled out of the country.
The Iraqis confirmed U.S. officials that they would charge Daqduq, but within months he was let go, provoking outrage from American officials and politicians. Daqduq was soon directing Hezbollah fighters once again, the senior U.S. defence official disclosed.
