A left front view of a U.S. Army UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter in flight during Operation Desert Shield. [Courtesy: U.S. Department of Defense]
Key Takeaways:
U.S. special forces successfully conducted a raid in Syria, resulting in the death of ISIS leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, who detonated himself during the operation.
During the mission, a U.S. Blackhawk helicopter experienced a mechanical malfunction and was intentionally destroyed by U.S. ground forces to prevent it from falling into enemy hands.
The two-hour firefight resulted in no U.S. casualties, though at least 13 other people, including civilians, were killed.
U.S. special forces destroyed their own helicopter to keep it from falling into enemy hands following a raid to kill the leader of the terrorist group ISIS.
The raid happened on February 2 with U.S. forces deploying from U.S. Black Hawk helicopters. This is the same method used in 2011 during the raid to kill Osama bin Laden.
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Meg Godlewski has been an aviation journalist for more than 24 years and a CFI for more than 20 years. If she is not flying or teaching aviation, she is writing about it. Meg is a founding member of the Pilot Proficiency Center at EAA AirVenture and excels at the application of simulation technology to flatten the learning curve. Follow Meg on Twitter @2Lewski.
