REUTERS/Muhammad Hamed Jordanian Salafi leader Abu Sayyaf speaks to the media at the home of 19-year-old Qussai al Emami, who local residents say was killed by security forces, in Maan city, 220 km (137 miles) from Amman, April 25, 2014
"Abu Sayyaf was involved in ISIL's military operations and helped direct the terrorist organization's illicit oil, gas, and financial operations as well," he said.
Sayyaf's wife, Umm Sayyaf, was captured during the firefight and is currently in military detention in Iraq, National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan said in a statement.
AP Photo/Nasser Nasser In this photo taken Oct. 29, 2014, Salafi cleric Mohammed al-Shalabi, then 48, widely known as Abu Sayyaf, talks during an interview with the Associated Press at a furniture store, owned by the head of Abu Sayyaf's clan, in the city of Ma'an, Jordan. 
Umm Sayyaf "played an important role in ISIL's terrorist activities, and may have been complicit in what appears to have been the enslavement of a young Yezidi woman rescued last night," Carter said.
According to the NSC statement, the rare raid was authorized by President Obama upon the unanimous recommendation of his national security team.
"This operation was conducted with the full consent of Iraqi authorities and, like our existing airstrikes against ISIL in Syria, consistent with domestic and
Earlier this week, ISIS overran the provincial capital Ramadi in Iraq and started closing in on the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra, a UNESCO World Heritage site.