About That Raid

"American special forces killed the head of Syrian network that funneled fighters, weapons and cash into Iraq...A villager said the US force grabbed two men and took them away by helicopter when they flew back to Iraq."

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"Three days earlier, US commander in western Iraq, Maj. Gen. John Kelly, called the Syrian border “an uncontrolled gateway” for fighters entering Iraq. He described the borders with Saudi Arabia and Jordan as “fairly tight” and referred to US forces’ success in shutting down the “rat lines” in Iraq with help from governments in North Africa."

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"...as well as the Algerian, Moroccan and Tunisian governments, as well as Western Europe countries hosting large North African migrants, in drying up the stream of al Qaeda’s recruits for Iraq. However, Syrian president Bashar Assad has frustrated years of US effort to shut down the network operating out of his territory."

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"Sunday’s operation was an extension of the US-Iraqi offensive to purge the northern Iraqi town of Mosul and northern Syria of al Qaeda elements, the jihadists’ last two strong bastions in the region".

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"Al Qaeda fighters recently captured by the US military in and around the northern Iraqi city of Mosul revealed the unabated flow of arms, fighters, cash and explosives from Syria to Iraq."

Meanwhile, "Syria and Iraq trade charges of cross-border terror".

"Iraqi Government spokesman...said “The latest of these groups… killed 13 police recruits in an (Iraqi) border village."