IS leader linked to Paris attacks ‘mastermind’ killed in Syria: Pentagon

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In this photo released on May 4, 2015, by a militant website, which has been verified and is consistent with other AP reporting, Islamic State militants pass by a convoy in Tel Abyad town, northeast Syria. In contrast to the failures of the Iraqi army, in Syria Kurdish fighters are on the march against the Islamic State group, capturing towns and villages in an oil-rich swath of the country's northeast in recent days, under the cover of U.S.-led airstrikes. (Militant website via AP)

An Islamic State leader with “direct” links to the alleged ringleader of the Paris attacks was killed in an air strike in Syria as he was plotting additional attacks, the Pentagon said Tuesday.

Baghdad-based US military spokesperson Colonel Steve Warren told reporters that Charaffe al Mouadan had been killed on December 24.

“He was a Syrian-based IS member with a direct link to Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the Paris attacks cell leader,” Warren said, adding that he “was actively planning additional attacks against the West.”