Kurdish commandos and the American Delta Force conducted an operation on what may just be studied for training and even considered to be one of the great raids in military history. Acting upon intelligence that about 70 hostages that includes Peshmerga fighters, were about to executed by ISIS in an area near Hawija in the Kirkuk Province of Iraq, the operation was immediately executed and the prisoners were successfully with a few Kurdish fighters injured and the first U.S. combat casualty in Iraq since 2011 and combat operations against ISIS.

According to the New York Times, Kurdish commandos went on a Helicopter raid to rescue the hostages. The U.S. special operations people who went with them were not supposed to be involved in the action, but when the operation got stalled, they had to respond, blasting a hole in the compound wall and rushed into the incoming gunfire from the ISIS terrorists defending the compound.

Master Sergeant Joshua L. Wheeler, a 39-year old highly decorated Delta Force Operator who served 14 deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan, was the first to go into the compound and was hit. But what he did paved the way for the rest of the commandos to enter the compound and accomplish the mission. They event took away a few surviving ISIS members with them to develop further intelligence.

Master Sergeant Joshua L. Wheeler

Here is a helmet cam footage of the raid that was broadcasted by NBC News showing how the Delta Force operators were fully in control of the operation:

What moved the Kurdish commandos to attack the compound with the assistance of Delta Force was that aerial reconnaissance showed a mass grave was dug at the prison compound. According to reports, there were around 11 young men who were sons Iraqi police were executed in the area.

This is the first time that U.S. forces were reported to be in combat. American forces are on the ground to advise and train Iraqi troops against ISIS as part of Operation Inherent Resolve.