Pentagon IDs American killed in Iraq hostage rescue

Master Sgt. Joshua L. Wheeler

According to CNN; The Pentagon identified the U.S. Army soldier who died as part of a rescue mission in Northern Iraq earlier this week as Master Sgt. Joshua L. Wheeler, of Roland, Oklahoma.

About 70 hostages facing "imminent mass execution" were rescued in the operation at an ISIS-controlled prison that killed Wheeler, 39, according to a Pentagon statement.

Wheeler, who was was part of the Army's Delta Force and assigned to Headquarters of the U.S. Army Special Operations Command at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, is the first American to die in combat in Iraq since November 2011. 

The hostages he was helping to rescue included more than 20 members of the Iraqi Security Forces, local residents and several ISIS fighters accused of spying. They were liberated Thursday after a helicopter assault that involved U.S. special operations troops as well as Kurdish and Iraqi forces, U.S. officials said.

"There was not a lot of time," one U.S. official told CNN on condition of anonymity. "The threat of execution was imminent."

Mass graves dug inside the compound were spotted during surveillance, a U.S. official with direct knowledge of details of the raid told CNN. After the rescue, hostages said they had been told they would be executed after morning prayers.

The firefight represents the first time U.S. forces stepped into combat against ISIS in Iraq, one U.S. official said.

A U.S. Special Forces commander on the ground made the decision to directly engage ISIS fighters during the overnight mission, according to the official with knowledge of the raid.

Thirty troops from Delta Force on an "advise and assist role" participated in the raid when Kurdish "Cobra" commandos were overwhelmed after entering the walled compound on their own, the official said.

Wheeler who was killed was shot inside the compound near Hawija in northern Kirkuk province, badly injured and flown to Irbil, where he died, according to the official.

Four Peshmerga soldiers were wounded, officials said.