Defense

Feinstein calls US raid on ISIS ‘picture perfect’


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Senator Dianne Feinstein on Sunday said the U.S. should be conducting more missions like the raid in which a top Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) leader was killed.

{mosads}“My assessment is that it was a success that it is the kind of one-two punch that we should do more of,” she said on ABC’s “This Week.” “I believe that if we’re not going to put troops on the ground, then we’ve got to use our Special Operations Forces to go in and collect intelligence; also be able to capture people that might be able to be helpful. This is the second this has been tried in Syria; the first time it was not successful. That was to rescue hostages.”

Feinstein, the senior Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee called the operation in which Abu Sayyaf was killed by U.S. forces on Saturday in Syria “a picture-perfect raid.”

“The demise of the principal, obviously, took place when the aim was to capture, as I understand it, but I’m very worried about the Islamic State,” she said. “It is now in at least 12 countries around North Africa, around the Middle East. It is organized. It is an impressive fighting force. It occupies territory. It runs a government. And most importantly it is evil. It annihilates in the most brutal of ways.”

Feinstein also said that the U.S. has “to get very serious about what we’re going to do not only to contain but to eradicate this force.”