The Most-Wanted ISIS Leader Is Still Alive. Here’s How the U.S. Is Using Drones to Hunt Him Down

The call for help came from half a world away to a windowless room at a remote airbase in South Dakota.

An American military advisor was calling from eastern Syria, asking the team at Ellsworth Air Force Base to deploy a drone to hunt down a small group of ISIS gunmen harassing the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the U.S.-backed force fighting in the region.

The call for help came from half a world away to a windowless room at a remote airbase in South Dakota. An American military advisor was calling from eastern Syria, asking the team at Ellsworth Air Force Base to deploy a drone to hunt down a small group of ISIS gunmen harassing the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the U.S.-backed force fighting in the region.