A militant Islamic State (IS) group commander described by the Pentagon as the group’s “minister of war” was likely killed in a United States (US) air strike in Syria, US officials said on Tuesday, in what would be a major victory in the US’ efforts to strike the militant group’s leadership.
Abu Omar al-Shishani, also known as Omar the Chechen, ranked among America’s most wanted militants under a US programme that offered up to $5 million for information to help remove him from the battlefield.
He was also one of the most-wanted men in Russia.
IS leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi was said by followers to have relied heavily on Shishani.
The strike itself involved multiple waves of manned and unmanned aircraft, targeting Shishani near the town of al-Shadadi in Syria, a US official said.
Shishani “was a Syrian-based Georgian national who held numerous top military positions within ISIL, including minister of war,” Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said, using an acronym for the group.
The Pentagon believes Shishani was sent there to bolster IS troops after they suffered a series of setbacks at the hands of US-backed forces from the Syrian Arab Coalition, which captured al-Shadadi from the militants last month.
Cook said the US military was still assessing the results of the strike, but acknowledged its potential significance.
The Pentagon spokesman said Shishani’s death would undermine the group’s ability to coordinate attacks and defend its strongholds. It would also hurt IS’ ability to recruit foreign fighters, especially those from Chechnya and the Caucus regions, he said.
Several US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, expressed optimism that the strike was successful, although none were prepared to declare Shishani dead with certainty.
The first official said initial assessments indicated Shishani was likely killed along with an additional 12 IS fighters.
An official in the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, which has been fighting IS in the al-Shadadi area, said it had received information that Shishani was killed but had no details and had been unable to confirm the death. The official declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter.
The strike would be one of the most successful operations to take out IS leadership in Iraq and Syria since May, when US special operations forces killed the man who directed the group’s oil, gas and financial operations.
[…] Source link to Read more […]
Comments are closed.