ISIL Takfiri group as confirmed the death of its key commander Omar al-Shishani, Amaq news agency, which ISIL regularly uses to issue reports said on Wednesday.
The Pentagon announced in March that Shishani was believed to have died of injuries received in an air strike targeting his convoy in the south of the Hasakah province in northeastern Syria — details at odds with Amaq’s account.
Amaq reported that Shishani was killed in combat in the town of Shirqat, south of Mosul in Iraq. It said he died trying to repel forces campaigning to retake the city of Mosul. However, the Takfiri-linked news agency did not specify when, but the statement conflicts with US claims made in March.
Officials at the Pentagon said they were aware of Wednesday’s report but could not confirm or deny it.
Meanwhile, Rami Abdelrahman, head of the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said Shishani had been wounded in March and died soon after in the countryside east of Raqqah.
“I confirmed from the doctor who went to see him,” said Abdelrahman, adding ISIL likely delayed announcing his death to allow time to line up a successor.
Known for his signature red beard, Shishani is said to have once been a member of an elite Georgian military unit.
The terrorist, whose name was originally Tarkhan Tayumurazovich Batirashvili, was born in Georgia in 1986. He was reportedly fighting alongside Georgian armed forces during the country’s short war against Russia in 2008.
Shishani, who the Pentagon described as ISIL’s “minister of war, ranked among America’s most wanted militants under a US program that offered up to $5 million reward on the commander’s head.
ISIL terrorists, who were initially trained by the CIA in Jordan in 2012 to destabilize the Syrian government, now control parts of Syria and its eastern neighbor, Iraq.
In September 2014, the US Treasury Department added Shishani along with 10 other militants to the list of Specially Designated Global Terrorists.
Iraqi forces are advancing towards Mosul, the largest city still under the control of ISIL. They have mostly surrounded Shirqat, 250 km (160 miles) north of Baghdad, and last week retook a major airbase from the militants to use in the main push on Mosul, 60 kilometers further north.
Source: AFP
