Islamic State Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi (Caliph) Abu Ali al-Anbari (Deputy, Syria) Unknown Foreign intervention in behalf of Syrian rebels U.S.-led intervention against ISIL The 2014 rescue mission in Syria was an American led effort to locate and rescue hostages being held by Islamic State (IS) forces.

[3] Plans to rescue the hostages were accelerated after the execution of journalist James Foley, Steven Sotloff, and Kayla Mueller by IS militants.

Foley was working as a freelancer for GlobalPost and other media outlets like Agence France-Presse during the Syrian Civil War when he was captured by IS militants in 2012.

The organization receives funding from oil production and smuggling, taxes, ransoms from kidnappings, selling stolen artifacts, extortion and controlling crops.

[13] Statements from the unidentified source along with other intelligence gatherings were then taken to the Pentagon to discuss the specific details of the rescue mission.

Officials were aware that the possibility of successfully rescuing all of the hostages without a single American fatality would be slim but the risk was too big not to act.

After landing on the ground, the soldiers blocked the main road towards Raqqa and ambushed the suspected hostage-house in a prison.

[20] During the home search, the special forces were able to acquire cellphones, hair, half-eaten meals and, blankets for forensic evidence.

[22] No American forces were killed during the operation, however during the immediate storming of the suspected location, one IS fighter fired at a Black Hawk helicopter, striking the pilot in the leg.

and was taken into consideration when President Obama reiterated to the Member States at the Security Council that, "foreign fighters were likely to return to their home countries to carry out attacks."