ISIS claims their Leader and Spokesman has been killed

ISIS says its spokesman and chief strategist in Syria, Mohammed al-Adnani, has been killed in Aleppo. The claim by the Russian military could not be independently confirmed by The Washington Post.

“According to reports confirmed by several intelligence channels, field commander Abu Mukhammad al-Adnani, better known as “the official spokesperson” of the global terrorist group Islamic State, was among the liquidated terrorists”, Russia’s government-owned TASS news agency reported Wednesday, citing defense ministry officials. While the USA did not immediately confirm al-Adnani’s death, such assessments can often take days and announcements are sometimes pipped by militant organisations.

Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said: “We have no information to support Russia’s claim that they also carried out a strike against Adnani”. It has not devoted much, if any, effort targeting ISIL’s leadership. Russian aviation acts in Syria at the request of the government of that country to fight terrorist groups such as the IS, which led the Syrian army to achieve great successes in the military field since late a year ago.

Meanwhile, American officials are trying to confirm that al-Adnani was killed in a precision air strike carried out by coalition forces, which Townsend said suggests that USA intelligence in fighting the terror group is “good and it’s getting better”.

“I’m not going to wager a guess as to why they might have a motive to engage in this and to discuss this, and maybe it’s just a misunderstanding on their part”.

Al-Adnani’s death was acknowledged by the IS-linked Amaq news agency, which reported that he was killed “while surveying the operations to repel the military campaigns against Aleppo“.

“I know what ISIL itself has said”.

Another senior defense official told Reuters Wednesday, “Russia’s claim is a joke”.

“We stand by the statement we made yesterday”.

Al-Adnani, a Syrian citizen in his late 30s, had a $5 million US Department of State bounty on his head – the second biggest for any IS official after the movements leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.