Russian Federation said on Tuesday that it was behind the killing of Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, an IS propaganda chief widely considered the group’s second-in-command.
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The Defense Ministry in Moscow said information from several intelligence sources showed that al-Adnani was among the militants killed by the Russian strike near the village of Ma’arat Umm Hawsh, north of Aleppo.
Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said Tuesday that while the results of the US-led coalition’s airstrike against Adnani were not clear, his “removal from the battlefield would mark another significant blow to ISIS”.
Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said on Tuesday the United States was “still assessing the results of the strike”.
“Adnani’s killing is a signal that IS can no longer protect its most senior leaders”, said Baghdad-based expert on militants Hisham al-Hashimi.
The IS-run Aamaq news agency said Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2016 that al-Adnani was “martyred while surveying the operations to repel the military campaigns against Aleppo”, without providing further details.
He left Syria to travel to Iraq to fight US forces there after its 2003 invasion, and only returned to his homeland after the start of its own civil war in 2011, a person who knew his family said.
Under Adnani’s auspices, Islamic State has launched large-scale attacks, bombings and shootings, on civilians in several countries outside its core area, including France, Belgium and Turkey.
“According to reports confirmed by several intelligence channels, field commander Abu Mukhammad al-Adnani, better known as “the official spokesperson” of the worldwide terrorist group Islamic State, was among the liquidated terrorists”, the report says.
Like Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State, Adnani is believed to have been held in USA military custody in Iraq roughly a decade ago, only to be released.
Al-Adnani persistently called for attacks against the West.
The official said Adnani had played a major role in the group during some of the most high-profile attacks over the past year, including in Paris, at the Brussels and Istanbul airports and at a cafe in Bangladesh.
“I think the United States are very close to killing Baghdadi the next time”, Hashimi said.
A number of ISIS followers and members captured and questioned in the last two years, including French jihadists Faiz Bouchrane and Reda Hame, have attested to Adnani as head of the Amniyat.
In June 2014, he was the first to declare a caliphate for parts of Syria and Iraq, indicating ISIS’ aim to become a governing entity and not just a terrorist group.
He was a Syrian who was born in the northern province of Idlib and is believed to have been in his late 30s.
On July 13, Amaq announced the death of senior IS commander Omar al-Shishani, whose nom de guerre means Omar the Chechen, near Mosul in northern Iraq.
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Adnani was instrumental in IS’s media wing, but was also in charge of the group’s external operations, meaning being the man in charge of attacks in the west. “To have that voice destroyed is a serious blow to the organization, probably the most significant kill that the enemies of the Islamic state have perpetrated since its declaration of the caliphate”.
