The Islamic State’s chief spokesman and strategist of external terror operations, Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, was killed in a U.S. precision strike while overseeing military operations in northern Syria.
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In a statement, Russia’s defence ministry said an Su-34 warplane on Tuesday killed “up to 40” IS fighters in a bombing raid near the village of Um Hosh in the province of Aleppo.
Prior to his death, the US State Department announced a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to al-Adnani, a “specially designated global terrorist”. Lone wolves and IS’s most lethally trained operatives alike heeded his words – and turned them into bloody deeds.
Islamic State said on Tuesday Adnani was killed “while surveying the operations to repel the military campaigns against Aleppo“.
Despite a lengthy tribute, dated August 29, Amaq made no mention of who was responsible for killing al-Adnani, or whether he was killed from the air or from the ground. Aleppo is the name of the northern Syrian city that has been the site of years of fierce battles, and also of the province surrounding it.
In Washington, Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said authorities were “still assessing the results of the strike”. Adnani’s death has been rumored several times before.
Experts have warned of a possible increase in jihadist attacks in the West as IS faces growing pressure in Syria, where USA officials estimate the group has lost 20 percent of the territory it once held, and in Iraq, where it has lost about 50 percent.
His death would be a shake-up within the group’s most senior ranks. “Otherwise it would not have been possible to take out so many high-ranking figures”, he said.
Aleppo is a current focal point of the civil war in Syria, where IS, Syrian Kurdish forces, Turkey-backed rebels and President Bashar Assad’s forces are vying for control.
Adnani is a Syrian from Binish in Idlib, south-west of Aleppo, who pledged allegiance to Islamic State’s predecessor al-Qaeda more than a decade ago and was once imprisoned by USA forces in Iraq, according to the Brookings Institution.
“Adnani was a legacy AQI (Al-Qaeda in Iraq) member, a Shura council member and the most publicly recognizable official in ISIL”, the official said. As head of external operations, he was in charge of attacks overseas, including Europe.
Abu Muhammad al-Adnani was one of the founders of ISIS, along with self-appointed caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. He then helped the organization survive near-extinction to re-emerge later as IS. It described him as “the official spokesman for and a senior leader” of ISIS, a position he obtained after becoming one of the first foreign fighters to oppose US-led forces in Iraq. The Pentagon confirmed that coalition aircraft had targeted the IS leader, but not that he had been killed.
Adnani was heard in a audio message in May urging Muslims to carry out strikes in the West.
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Earlier this year, he called for massive attacks during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
