The US Delta Force is a skilled “kill team” which is deployed to Iraq in order to carry out missions against forces fighting the Daesh (ISIL) Takfiri group in Iraq and Syria, says a former US Army psychological warfare officer.
Scott Bennett, a counter-terrorism analyst, made the comments on Monday while referring to reports that the US Delta Force is about to begin operations in Iraq.
A US government official told CNN on Monday that the troops have been preparing over the last few weeks, setting up safe houses and establishing informant networks while coordinating their missions with Iraqi and Kurdish Peshmerga forces.
“They are good; they are assassins; they are terrorist kill teams; they are more shooters than they are Special Forces teams,” Bennett said. “But they are a kill team that goes in, targets and shoots up buildings and then kills people.”
The question is who are they instructed to kill, Daesh terrorists or Iraqi and Syrian forces, he argued.
The analyst added that Delta’s “autonomous” way of operating in Syria means that they would not work in coordination with Iraqi and Syrian forces, as well as countries like Russia, which has been carrying out an aerial campaign against Daesh positions in Syria since last September, following a request by Damascus.
Bennett accused the US and its regional allies in the Middle East such as Bahrain and Saudi Arabia as the main financiers of Daesh, which is in contrast with the proposed Delta Forces plan.