The U.S. has not given details on the nature of the strike, but a standard strike release presented daily by the U.S. -led operation against ISIS includes that “a strike engaged an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed a vehicle” in Washiyah, Syria – a city “near Al Bab”.
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The Pentagon, however, scoffed Wednesday at Moscow’s claim of responsibility – and pointed out that the Kremlin’s taking credit for al-Adnani’s death makes no strategic or logistical sense.
The two countries also have pledged to target Islamic State militants in Syria, but the Pentagon has complained that Russian jets also are targeting anti-Assad rebels trained by the USA military.
Russia’s military said one of its airstrikes killed Adnani in a bombing raid on Tuesday that left up to 40 ISIS jihadists dead.
Washington said al-Adnani was targeted by a US airstrike on the nearby city of al-Bab, though USA officials were still confirming his death.
He said: “We are still assessing the results of the strike, but Al-Adnani’s removal from the battlefield would mark another significant blow to ISIL (another name for IS)”.
ISIS’s media arm, the Amaq news agency, first reported al-Adnani’s death Tuesday in a social media post, stating he had been killed while inspecting troops in Aleppo. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence information.
Adnani was “the most viscerally aggressive ISIS leader in the public eye”, said Charles Lister. Cook said Adnani has been responsible for the Islamic State’s external terror strategies.
Known for ruthless tactics and his thick red beard, Shishani, whose Georgian name was Tarkhan Batirashvili, was one of the most sought IS leaders in Syria, described by United States officials who put a $5-million bounty on his head as the group’s de facto defence minister.
“After a journey filled with sacrifice and fight against non-believers, the Syrian Gallant knight, Abu Mohammed al-Adnani, joined the convoy of martyr leaders”, ISIS said. He is also believed to have directed the attacks on the Brussels and Istanbul airports, and the bloody hostage attack in Bangladesh.
However, U.S. officials have cast doubt on the idea that its former Cold War adversary had struck an important blow against ISIS by killing a top commander viewed as a possible successor to leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
One of the group’s founder members, he was born Taha Sobhi Falaha in the northern Syrian town of Banash in 1977 and had a USA bounty of $5m (£3.82m) on his head.
Adnani is a Syrian from Idlib who pledged allegiance to Daesh’s predecessor al-Qaeda more than a decade ago and was once imprisoned by US forces in Iraq, according to the Brookings Institution.
Amaq did not say how Adnani was killed.
His death, like al-Zarqawi’s in a 2006 USA airstrike, will only empower al-Adnani’s “soldiers”, the militants said in announcing al-Adnani’s death. His supporters said he was so zealous about teaching that there were times when he would hold as many as 14 classes a night. 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.
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It was Adnani who in a June 2014 audio recording declared IS’s establishment of a “caliphate” straddling Syria and Iraq and Baghdadi as “leader of Muslims everywhere”.
