Obama had a tee time and couldn’t lead the mission from the situation room.
Via AMI Newswire:
Under the dim light of a quarter moon, a U.S. special operations team skimmed through the night skies above eastern Afghanistan, awaiting final mission approval from President Barrack Obama while speeding toward the objective. The commandos were fast on their way last month to rescue two western hostages held by hostile gunmen.
As the raiders approached their target — a makeshift prison compound — they suddenly were ordered to stand down. The president, who was vacationing on the island of Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, did not have time to give the required final go-ahead. He wanted 24 hours to consider the rescue.
A day later, Obama approved the mission. The commandos relaunched. This time, they reached the target — only to find the hostages had been moved four hours prior, said sources with direct knowledge of events.
“We raised hell in that compound,” said a security staffer with knowledge of the mission. “We knocked down walls and killed bad guys.”
Seven hostile combatants were killed and one injured, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) confirmed to American Media Institute. Among its many duties, CENTCOM is the Pentagon’s Unified Combatant Command in charge of operations in Afghanistan.
“No civilians were killed or harmed,” said Col. John J. Thomas, the CENTCOM director of public affairs. “No U.S. forces were killed or hurt.”
The missions took place Aug. 10 and 11, in Afghanistan, Thomas confirmed. He did not address operational details of the rescue missions; but AMI spoke to sources who provided details, some of which CENTCOM confirmed.
The sources are security officials who are privy to the kidnaps and the attempted rescues. They do not work together and are affiliated with different agencies. The sources are not authorized to talk to the press, and spoke to AMI on condition of anonymity.
“We had the hostages within reach,” said a source who met face to face with this reporter at a remote dockside setting in the United States to discuss the incident. The source insisted that the meeting be held outdoors and without access to electronic devices.
HT: TAH