“If you can kill a disbelieving American or European – especially the spiteful and filthy French – or an Australian, or a Canadian, or any other disbeliever from the disbelievers waging war, including the citizens of the countries that joined a coalition against the Islamic State, then rely upon Allah, and kill him in any manner or way however it may be”, al-Adnani said in 2014.
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According to the Pentagon, it had targeted Adnani in a precision strike near the town of al-Bab and was still assessing the results.
The terror group had announced Adnani’s death through its news outlet, Amaq, yesterday.
A Russian air strike killed the Islamic State group’s spokesman and chief strategist, says Russia’s defence ministry.
One of the last survivors of the al-Qaida terrorists who originally formed Islamic State last decade in Iraq, including its self-appointed caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, Adnani had risen to become one of its most influential leaders.
Amaq did not say how Adnani, born Taha Subhi Falaha in Syria’s Idlib Province in 1977, was killed. The IS-run Aamaq news agency said Tuesday, Aug 30, 2016, that al-Adnani was killed while overseeing operations in northern Syria, without providing further details.
If his death is confirmed, those skills will be hard to replace, even in a group as resilient as Islamic State, after a series of territorial losses and killings of top leaders.
Born in the countryside of the northwestern Syrian province of Idlib, al-Adnani was also among the first group of foreign fighters against United States invasion in Iraq in 2003.
Britain and France have called for sanctions after the investigative panel found that President Bashar al-Assad’s forces had carried out at least two chemical attacks, one in 2014 and one in 2015.
More recently, al-Adnani purportedly released a May audio recording instructing supporters to make the most of Islam’s holy month, which began in June, Reuters reported.
In his post as a mouthpiece of the terrorist organization, al-Adnani was viewed as the face of the group’s efforts to recruit new members and inspire “lone wolf” attacks in the Western world.
He was from a well-to-do background but 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.
Accounts from arrested members of the Islamic State confirmed al-Adnani’s role as an operational leader as well. He reportedly was captured in 2005 and taken into custody at a camp run by the USA military, but was freed in 2010.
It has also lost some of its most senior commanders and founding members over the past year, including its “minister of war” Omar al-Shishani, feared Iraqi militant Shaker Wuhayeb, also known as Abu Wahib, and a leading finance official known by several names, including Abu Ali Al-Anbari.
There were conflicting reports earlier on Tuesday as to where and how Adnani died.
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 USA officials who put a 5-million bounty on his head as the group’s de facto defence minister.
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There was a $5 million reward on his head under the U.S. “Rewards for Justice” programme.
