The Pentagon said Wednesday that it has “no information” to corroborate Russian claims that it targeted and killed ISIS spokesman Abu Muhammad al-Adnani by airstrike, and reiterated that the us did target Adnani in Syria.
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“We have no information to support Russia’s claims that they also carried out a strike against Adnani”, Cook said, noting that Russian Federation has spent most of its military campaign in Syria “supporting and propping up” the regime of Bashar al-Assad and not pursuing the ISIS leadership.
The spokesman for ISIS Abu Mohammed Al-Adnani has reportedly been killed in Aleppo yesterday whilst “inspecting military operations”.
Russia´s military said one of its air strikes had killed Adnani in a bombing raid Tuesday that left up to 40 Daesh militants dead – a claim dismissed by USA officials as “a joke”.
The death is a major blow for the militant group as they continue to suffer losses in Iraq and Syria.
However, Russia has been assisting the Syrian government’s military in the region, where different stretches of land are controlled by a hodgepodge of forces including the regime of Bashar Assad, ISIS, Kurdish militias and US -backed rebels.
In June 2014, he formally declared the establishment of the IS caliphate stretching across parts of Syria and Iraq under the leadership of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, demanding allegiance from Muslims worldwide.
Both Russian and US aircraft operate in the skies over Syria, where they have opposing goals: Russia is backing the regime of embattled President Bashar Assad, while the U.S.is supporting Syrian rebels who want to oust Assad.
Meanwhile, ISIS announced Tuesday their leader Adnani has been killed and it was highest-profile killing until now of their member.
He 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.
US-led coalition air strikes have killed several senior figures in the Islamic State group since April in a heavy blow to the jihadist organisation.
Russian and USA officials are both claiming the kill on Abu Mohamed al-Adnani, ISIS spokesperson and a key jihadi figure. He crossed the border and joined al-Qaida in Iraq, a precursor to IS, after the 2003 USA -led invasion.
Adnani “served as principal architect of IS’s external operations and as its chief spokesperson”, Cook said.
He was a founding member of ISIL, which evolved from Al Qaeda in Iraq to become the pre-eminent global extremist movement.
A Kremlin spokesman said Wednesday that President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, would discuss Syria on the sidelines of a Group of 20 economic summit this weekend in Hangzhou, China.
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Al-Adnani, whose real name is Taha Sobhi Falaha, persistently called for attacks against the West.
