Pentagon: Raid on ISIL Compound Produced 'Cache of Intelligence'

US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter claims that the United States and its Kurdish partners in the fight against ISIL obtained a large amount of intelligence on the terrorist group as a result of the Thursday raid on one of the group’s compounds.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The United States and its Kurdish partners in the fight against the Islamic State obtained a large amount of intelligence on the terrorist group as a result of the Thursday raid on one of the group’s compounds, US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter stated on Friday.

"Dozens of lives were saved and a significant cache of intelligence was collected," Carter told the press of the Thursday raid.

US and Kurdish Peshmerga forces carried out the action after receiving information of an imminent mass execution of 70 hostages held in an ISIL compound outside the Iraqi town of Hawija.

Carter pointed out that US and Kurdish forces collected documentation, electronic equipment and other information following the raid, noting that the former hostages are also critical intelligence sources.

"The sum of all this will be some valuable intelligence," Carter said.

The Thursday raid left approximately 20 ISIL fighters dead, and resulted in one US casualty.