DUHOK – Top jihadi leader and head of intelligence in the Islamic State (ISIS) Ali al-Aswad was killed along with two other ISIS members in an airstrike by the US-led coalition northern Iraq, officials reported on Thursday. | Was he a number three? |
“Within the framework of our war against the ISIS terror group, the Kurdish counter-terrorism department has pursued al-Aswad’s movements and provided accurate information to the coalition, enabling the US air force to bomb the confidential location of this high ranking terrorist, killing him along with two other ISIS terrorists,” the Kurdish counter-terrorism office in Erbil said in an official statement on Thursday.
The airstrike hit a building in the village of Tel Azba where al-Aswad was hiding.
Al-Aswad was reportedly in charge of maintaining personal security of the ISIS supreme leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
“The death of al-Aswad comes as a shock to the ISIS leadership. The man was one of the closest ISIS members to al-Baghdadi, which means the alleged caliph himself is within the reach and could be targeted at any moment,” chief of Nineveh media centre Raafat al-Zarari told ARA News.
In Mosul, a coalition airstrike killed Abu Othman al-Afari, a military commander in ISIS ranks.
“Al-Afari’s convoy was hit by an airstrike in western Mosul on Wednesday midnight, killing him and three of his escorts,” media activist Abdullah al-Malla told ARA News in Mosul. “This was another blow to ISIS in Nineveh province.”