IS confirms killing of number two

“America is rejoicing over the killing of [Hayali] and considers this a great victory”, IS spokesman Abu Mohamed al-Adnani said on Tuesday in an audio recording posted on jihadist websites.

Adnani added that Quarashi had left heroes to fight the Americans and their allies.

Adnani did not say, however, in what circumstances Qurashi died.

The Islamic State (IS) group’s second-in-command has been killed in an airstrike, according to a spokesperson.

The White House had already announced in August that Fadhil Ahmad al-Hayali, who was also known as Hajji Mutazz, had been killed in a USA airstrike on a vehicle near Mosul.

This is the leader of the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has been proclaimed by his followers to be a caliph.

Isis controls large swathes of Syria and neighbouring Iraq and has set up an Islamic “caliphate” straddling both countries.

Last year, the US leads a coalition that launched an air war against Isis in Syria and Iraq.

Along with many high-profile jihadists, he later moved from al Qaeda to the IS, where he became a senior deputy of the group’s chief Baghdadi.

Al-Hayali had previously been a lieutenant colonel in the army of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and served in the government’s military intelligence and special forces units.