“This religion will always stand, unharmed by the death of any person”, the news site said, telling supporters they should “stand up and die” just as Adnani did, al-Naba said, according to a translation carried by the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors militant statements.
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He added: “We are still assessing the results of the strike, but al-Adnani’s removal from the battlefield would mark another significant blow to Isil'”. Adnani had joined the group under its founder Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
Hisham al-Hashimi, a Baghdad-based security analyst that advises the Iraqi government on IS affairs: said:’As a military target, Adnani is less important than (ex war minister Omar) al-Shishani.(killed earlier this year in Iraq).
Adnani, who had a $5 million U.S. bounty on his head, was originally from the western Syrian province of Idlib and joined the militant movement in Iraq, where he served under late al-Qaeda leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
“The SDF troops captured the villages of Um al-Haush, Um al-Qura, Harbal and Qarrah on Tuesday afternoon after forcing ISIS militants to withdraw under heavy artillery bombardment”, SDF official Zaidoun Hedo told ARA News in Aleppo.
The United States confirmed on Tuesday that it had also targeted Adnani in a strike that day.
“He was their most prolific and public spokesman”, said Will McCants, a former State Department official and expert on the Islamic State.
“He has coordinated the movement of ISIL fighters, directly encouraged lone-wolf attacks on civilians and members of the military and actively recruited new ISIL members”.
“Coalition forces conducted an air strike in Al-Bab, Syria, targeting an (ISIS) senior leader”, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Adnani has been with ISIS since its beginnings and was close to Baghdadi, CNN’s Nic Robertson said.
His death is a major blow to the extremist group, which has been on the retreat in Syria and Iraq.
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 United States bounty of $5m (£3.82m) on his head.
Russia’s Ministry of Defense claimed on Wednesday that the Kremlin was behind the airstrike in Aleppo on Tuesday that killed Islamic State spokesperson Abu Mohammad al-Adnani. He said things like, ‘If you can’t shoot them, then stab them, and if you can’t stab them, then crush their heads with rocks. If he was indeed in al-Bab then it would mean he may have been killed in an airstrike.
“He absolutely tried to maximize every opportunity to instill fear in Syria and Iraq and the worldwide community and send fighters overseas to attack”, Robertson said. He has also called for attacks in Western countries, telling Muslims in France on occasion to attack “the filthy French” in any way they could, including “crush them with your vehicle”.
“He was the strategic leader of the organization, especially when it comes to attacks on the West”, said journalist Graeme Wood, Edward R. Murrow Press Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.
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He formally declared the establishment of a caliphate, or Islamic state, in late June 2014.
