Washington--A US commando raid in Syria last month that killed a senior figure from the Islamic State group produced a wealth of information about the jihadists' finances and leadership, the New York Times reported Tuesday, citing US officials.
Material seized in the May 16 raid against Abu Sayyaf, believed to be the group's top financier, already helped US forces track down and bomb another IS leader in eastern Syria on May 31, unnamed officials told the Times.
US government officials believe an influential lieutenant, Abu Hamid, was killed in that air strike, the Times reported, but the IS group has not yet confirmed his death.
An estimated four to seven terabytes of data was extracted from laptops, cell phones and other items recovered in the operation, the newspaper said. The information included insights into how the group's leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, seeks to avoid being monitored by US-led coalition forces.
When the IS chief meets regional leaders at his headquarters in Raqqa, each militant has to hand over their mobile phone to a driver to avoid revealing their location to Western spy services, the paper wrote.
"I'll just say from that raid we're learning quite a bit that we did not know before," a senior State Department official told reporters in a teleconference last week.
US intelligence agencies declined to comment on the report.
AFP
