As head of external operations, he was in charge of attacks overseas, including Europe.
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Al Adnani was “the most viscerally aggressive ISIS leader in the public eye”, said Charles Lister, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute.
“Ramadan is coming”, said al-Adnani said “Make sure that every one of you spend it in the name of God and on the attack”.
Islamic State had announced his death through its media outlet Amaq. He said the US was “still assessing the results of the strike”. USA defense officials said earlier that Russia’s claim is a “joke”.
Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said the results of airstrikes against Adnani are yet to be known but it is another significant blow to ISIS.
“We have no information to support Russia’s claims that they also carried out a strike against Adnani”, Cook said, noting that Russian Federation has spent most of its military campaign in Syria “supporting and propping up” the regime of Bashar al-Assad and not pursuing the ISIS leadership. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence information.
The United States is in doubt whether Russian Federation killed ISIS spokesman Mohammad al-Adnani in one of its airstrikes in Syria.
But members of the rival terrorist group al-Qeada were also celebrating the death of Al-Adnani, who was once a member himself. IS has already had plenty of time to put plans in place for further strikes, it said.
Russia and the USA have not coordinated their attacks, though meetings between Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov have floated the idea.
But he was much more than a spokesman, CNN terrorism analyst Paul Cruickshank said.
The trio – a truck driver, a butcher and a drink seller – had planned to fly to Syria to join the Islamic State group following the attacks, police added. ISIS did not specify when and how Adnani died. The strike targeted a senior unnamed official according to news agencies, but local sources said in media reports yesterday that the worldwide coalition targeted the vehicle that Al-Adnani was travelling in on Tuesday afternoon at the Qedairan junction which is on the outskirts of Al-Bab city. He was a devout reader of religious books, eventually writing his own explainers about Islamic laws and traditions.
Adnani, a Syrian born in 1977, was one of ISIS’ most recognised leaders. Here are some facts about al-Adnani-the Daesh propagandist.
In Iraq, the group has lost its strongholds in Fallujah and Ramadi, in the western Anbar province.
Experts have warned of a possible increase in militant attacks in the West as ISIS faces growing pressure in Syria, where USA officials estimate the group has lost 20 per cent of the territory it once held, and in Iraq, where it has lost about half.
A powerful orator, he went on to become the voice of ISIS.
He went on to release audio recordings urging lone-wolf attacks against civilians in nations that supported the US-led coalition against IS.
Earlier this year, he called for massive attacks during Ramadan, a call that translated into the bloodiest Muslim holy month in recent memory. Pentagon officials have denied this, calling it “false” and “a joke”. “Therefore, he may be replaced by multiple men”, Joscelyn said.
With reports earlier this week centering on the idea that slain ISIS spokesman Abu Mohamed al-Adnani was a wildly important leader in the movement, and that his death is likely to be a huge blow to the caliphate, U.S. and Russian officials are now issuing competing claims over who actually killed him.
In an airstrike conducted in the area of Maaratat Umm Hawsh on Tuesday, the Su-34 targeted a group of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) fighters numbering about 40 people, the Russian Defense Ministry reported.
“The report is not credible”, a USA defense official said of the Russian claim of credit.
Russian Federation has been running its own bombing campaign in Syria in support of President Bashar al-Assad since September, but this was the first time it has claimed to have killed a high-ranking ISIS leader.
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It said its information had been confirmed “through several intelligence channels”. Despite this, they insist they have total certainty that Russian Federation didn’t manage to kill him in their own airstrikes.
