BY Taiwo George
Abu al-Shishani, a commander of the Islamic State, whom Pentagon described as the group’s “minister of war’’, was killed during an air strike launched by the US military last week.
The operation involved multiple waves of manned and unmanned aircraft that targeted al-Shishani near the town of al-Shaddadi in eastern Syria.
According to a department of defense press release, the military is still assessing the results of the strike.
Pentagon said it believed that Al-Shaddadi was sent to bolster IS militants demoralised after a series of defeats by local US-backed forces near the Syrian-Iraqi border
The militant leader 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.
Born in 1986 in Georgia, which was then still part of the Soviet Union, the red-bearded man had a reputation as a close military adviser to Islamic State leader Abu al-Baghdadi, who was said to have relied heavily on Shishani.
Peter Cook, Pentagon spokesman, said Shishani’s death would undermine the group’s ability to coordinate attacks and defend its strongholds.
He added that it would also hurt Islamic State’s ability to recruit foreign fighters, especially those from Chechnya and the Caucus regions.
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