Islamic State’s emir of war wiped out in huge American bombing raid
– A senior Islamic State has been killed in an American bombing raid
– Omar Shishani was one of the terror group’s most senior commanders
– Islamic State has suffered a series of setbacks recently
An infamous Islamic State commander has been killed in an American bombing raid.
Feared Chechen jihadi fighter Omar Shishani, alias the Emir of War, died of wounds suffered in a U.S. airstrike in Syria last week, a senior American intelligence official and the head of a Syrian activist group said Tuesday.
“We assess he’s dead,” U.S. Army Col. Steve Warren, a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq and Syria said.
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U.S. warplanes and drones targeted Shishani, along with a group of Islamic State fighters outside the Syrian town of Shadadi, in a series of strikes on March 4.
Shadadi has been the site of heavy fighting in recent weeks as a rebel alliance called the Syrian Democratic Forces, Syrian Kurds and U.S. advisers have pushed to retake the town — a key intersection near the Iraqi border — from the Islamic State.
Shishani had years of combat experience in Russia and the Middle East
Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently, a group of activists and citizen journalists reporting from within Islamic State-controlled territory, tweeted confirmation of Shishani’s death Monday night.
Shishani, the nom de guerre of Tarkhan Batirashvili, was one of the Islamic State leaders most wanted by Washington, which put a $5m bounty on his head.
As early as May 2013, when Isis was just emerging in Syria, he was appointed the group’s military commander for the north of the country.
Islamic State uses horrific acts of barbarity to ensure its control over parts of Syria and Iraq
However, a news group linked with Islamic State has reported that Shishani is still alive.
Amaq agency quoted a source saying Shishani “had not been exposed to any injury.”
Shishani was declared dead by the Russian government after fierce fighting in Chechnya in 2014.
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