[Updated May 5, 2016]
Reports surfaced Tuesday that ISIS had attacked the Christian city of Tel Askuf in Iraq. An intense firefight ensued involving local Kurdish Peshmerga troops and training forces from the Sons of Liberty International (SOLI), a group founded and run by Matthew Van Dyke. Unfortunately, one Navy SEAL gave his life defending the Christian city --- Charles Keating IV.
Jason Butrill, head researcher for The Glenn Beck Program and a former member of counterintelligence with U.S. Special Forces, received communication from Van Dyke's team as the fighting went down.
"This area that has been attacked is the Christian area in Iraq, it's the Ninevah Plain. And it's the town of Tel Askuf, which is exactly where we were during Six Days In Iraq for The Root show," Jason explained. "It's going down right now. And it's not just the military forces. There's also contractors. There's Matthew VanDyke and the Sons of Liberty International. They're all basically picking up rifles right now and fending off this ISIS attack. It's going down right now."
According to Van Dyke, the town was completely overrun with ISIS capturing the majority of the city. Out of nowhere, more than 20 SEALs showed up and saved the day. If not for the SEALs, ISIS would currently have control of the city.
The Peshmerga were trying to hold the line, but Navy SEALS – at least twenty – came in and pounded the s--- out of ISIS," military trainer Matthew Van Dyke told Fox News, saying that "scores" of Islamic State militants died. Van Dyke and three U.S. veterans were training Assyrian Christian forces who were battling ISIS in the region.
ISIS kept sending in suicide bombers, SEALs pounded them and the [U.S.] airstrikes did a lot to help. Bullets flying everywhere, machine gun fire from ISIS, really intense firefight," Van Dyke added.
Van Dyke will join The Glenn Beck Program on Wednesday to give a play-by-play on exactly what went down. Be sure to tune in tomorrow for his firsthand account.
In the meantime, please be in prayer for the courageous Navy SEAL who died and his family.
Listen to this segment from The Glenn Beck Program:
Featured Image: Kurdish Peshmerga forces pose for photos with a former U.S. Marine volunteer on November 5, 2015 on the frontline against ISIS fighters in Telskuf, northern Iraq. All of the town's 11,000 residents fled when it was overrun by the Islamic State in 2014 before being retaken by Peshmerga forces with the aid of American airstrikes. Of the 1,800 families that fled, some 40 percent left Iraq, according to Safaa Khamro, commander of the Nineveh Plain Forces (NPF), Christian militia. Many, he said, have now immigrated to Europe. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)