The US-led military coalition killed the Finance Minister of the Islamic State also known as ISIL or ISIS during an operation this week, according to the Pentagon on Friday. The attack raised fresh concerns about the extremist group’s ability to export terror even as it loses ground in Iraq and Syria.
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Daesh terrorists, who were initially trained by the Central Intelligence Agency in Jordan in 2012 to destabilize the Syrian government, now control large parts of Iraq and Syria. He said he was not aware of any link between him and this week’s terrorist attacks in Brussels.
Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced the developments in a press conference at the Pentagon on Friday.
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But regardless of whether IS militants in Iraq and Syria like Qaduli specifically directed or simply inspired such attacks, the US-led forces would do their best to eliminate them, Carter said.
“We have a series of recommendations that we will discuss with the president in the coming weeks to further enable our support for the Iraqi security forces”, said General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Carter has also said the U.S.is looking at a number of options to “accelerate” the fight against IS. He did not say how big that increase might be.
The Iraqi military said they killed the ISIS leader last May, though the Pentagon didn’t back up the claim.
The assaults against the group’s leadership in both Iraq and Syria represent a new phase in the war against the Islamic State, which until recently had largely consisted of airstrikes on buildings and groups of amassed fighters.
Carter refused to give details about the strike on Qaduli, but the Daily Beast reported that he was killed by a special operations raid rather than an airstrike.
He allegedly joined the Iraqi branch of al Qaeda in 2004, a group that eventually became Islamic State. Carter said eliminating the Islamic State’s strongholds in Iraq and Syria will help undermine the group’s ability to inspire or direct attacks around the world. He was believed to have been wounded in a USA airstrike during the month. He traveled to Syria where he has worked with an ISIL network. But he was a senior figure involved in the group’s financial operations, an area that has always been a target of US strikes.
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Asked whether the USA was turning the corner on the fight against ISIS, Carter responded, “We’re certainly gathering momentum and we’re seeing that that momentum is having an effect”.
