“We’ve taken out the leader who oversees the funding for ISIL’s operations, hurting their ability to pay fighters and hire recruits”, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said at a news conference Friday, using another acronym for Islamic State.
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A Pentagon official said Tuesday last week to the NY times, under the condition of anonymity, that a top ISIS militant died of his wounds on March, after the USA deployed an airstrike near the Syrian city of Shaddai on March 4. He was a senior member of the ISIS leadership board, and there had been talk that he could have been named a successor to the top figure, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, if he was ever killed.
The Pentagon said Friday it was moving to increase the number of American forces in Iraq and announced that Us forces have killed the Islamic State’s finance minister.
He added: “Indeed, the USA military killed several key ISIL terrorists this week, including we believe Haji Iman, who was an ISIL senior leader serving as a finance minister and who also was responsible for some external affairs and plots”.
Likely dead… Omar “the Chechen” al-Shishani, born Tarkhan Tayumurazovich Batirashvili, was targeted earlier this month. “They are senior, they are experienced”. Other U.S. officials said the commandos had seized electronics and other potential intelligence during the raid.
Terrorism experts have described him as charismatic and a gifted speaker as well as a skillful manager who played a critical role as a link between Baghdadi and the Islamic State’s regional “emirs” in Iraq and Syria.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Joseph Dunford, appearing alongside Carter, agreed that the U.S.-led coalition was gaining momentum, but he cautioned: “By no means would I say that we’re about to break the back of ISIL or that the fight is over”.
The strike comes amid growing pressure on Islamic State, which is steadily losing territory in Iraq and Syria to U.S.-backed forces. It’s the first such base established by the US since it returned forces to Iraq in 2014.
President Barack Obama plans to meet with leaders from Europe, China, Turkey and elsewhere this coming week to discuss the Islamic State threat, including a hypothetical scenario in which the group launches a nuclear terror attack, according to a senior administration official.
The two officials “believe that there will be an increase to the USA forces in Iraq in the coming weeks”, though that decision has yet to be made.
Still, the United States knows that victory is not yet within grasp, particularly if the group continues to inspire or help carry out deadly attacks, such as the one this week in Brussels and previous attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, Calif., Carter said.
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Carter said he has been associated with ISIS dating back to its earliest iteration as al Qaeda in Iraq. He previously worked under Abu Musab al-Zarqawi as liaison for operations in Pakistan.
