Islamic State group says spokesman killed in Syria

Al-Adnani was one of the US top targets among ISIS’s leadership, overseeing the group’s elaborate propaganda operations and credited with masterminding its strategy of staging terror attacks overseas, including the November 13 Paris attacks and the airport attacks in Brussels and Istanbul.

Adnani had coordinated the movement of ISIS fighters, directly encouraged lone-wolf attacks on civilians and members of the military and actively recruited new members, the Pentagon spokesperson said.

The Russian claim came a day after Pentagon said it carried out a precision attack against Adnani in Syria’s Al Bab region.

The US State Department allocated a reward of $ 5 million in May previous year for anyone who provided information about Al-Adnani. The official stopped short of confirming Adnani’s death, however. Cook said Wednesday that the United States is “still assessing the results of the strike”.

Al-Adnani’s death would be one of the most high-profile killings of an ISIS official since Abu Omar al-Shishani died – described by the Pentagon as the ISIS “minister of war” – in a US airstrike in March 2016.

Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook, using an alternative name for IS, said an air strike near Al-Bab had targeted Adnani, describing him as the “principal architect of ISIL’s external operations and…”

The official said al-Adnani was being watched “for some time” and he was killed in an airstrike on a vehicle near Washiya, a village north of Aleppo. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence information.

Adnani, a Syrian born in 1977, was one of ISIS’ most recognised leaders. IS has already had plenty of time to put plans in place for further strikes, it said.

“In the collective jihadist memory, Abu Mohamed al-Adnani will always be the one who announced the “restoration of the caliphate” in June 2014″, said expert Romain Caillet. He is also believed to have directed the attacks on the Brussels and Istanbul airports, and the bloody hostage attack in Bangladesh.

Russian Federation disputed that on Wednesday, saying its planes had targeted al-Adnani.

“The report is not credible”, a USA defense official said of the Russian claim of credit. It will undoubtedly be a tough blow for the militant group. He crossed the border and joined al-Qaeda in Iraq, a precursor to ISIS, after the 2003 USA -led invasion. It did not say exactly when, where or how Adnani died.

USA officials have often criticized Russia’s use of non-precision weapons in Syria that have resulted in civilian casualties. He was one of the remaining founding members and a visible one in his role as ISIS spokesman. He was also the right hand of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.