The Islamic State jihadist group’s second-in-command, Abdul Rahman Mustafa Al-Qaduli, has been killed in a United States coalition forces air raid, US defence secretary Ash Carter confirmed on Friday.
The Islamic State jihadist group’s second-in-command, Abdul Rahman Mustafa Al-Qaduli, has been killed in a United States coalition forces air raid, US defence secretary Ash Carter confirmed on Friday.
Also known as Abu Ala al-Afri, Al-Qaduli was in charge of ISIS’ finances and “was also responsible for some external affairs and plots,” Mr Carter said.
Mr Carter wouldn’t confirm where Al-Qaduli died or how, but US media reports cited unnamed officials as saying he was killed in Syria.
Considered to be in line to succeed ISIS leader Omar al-Baghdadi, Mr Carter described Al-Qaduli as a “well-known terrorist” and former Al Qaeda member.
Al-Qaduli’s death would hamper the group’s ability to conduct operations, Mr Carter said.
He also confirmed the death of a second high-profile ISIS casualty this month, Georgian-born Tarkhan Batirashvili, known as Omar al-Shishani (Omar the Chechen), who was killed in a US airstrike at the beginning of March.
“We are systematically eliminating ISIL’s cabinet,” Mr Carter said at a press conference, using an acronym for the group.
The US authorities had offered a reward of $7 million for Al-Qaduli, an ethnic Turkmen born in 1957 or 1959 in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul which has been controlled by ISIS since 2014.
The US justice department had offered a bounty of up to $7 million for information leading to Al-Qaduli.
“A few months ago when I said we were going to go after ISIL’s financial infrastructure, we started with storage sites, and now we’ve taken out the leader who oversees their finances, hurting their ability to pay and hire recruits,” Mr Carter said.
“Our campaign plan is first and foremost to collapse ISIL’s parent tumour in Iraq and Syria.”
Mr Carter was asked whether Al-Qaduli could have had a link to the November terror attacks in Paris or to this week’s bombings in Belgium and said he could not confirm a specific link to the Brussels attacks.
But whether ISIS militants in Iraq and Syria like Al-Qaduli had specifically directed such attacks or were their motivating inspiration, the US-led forces would do their best to eliminate them, Mr Carter said.
Al-Qaduli was born in the Iraqi city of Mosul, according to Iraqi security sources. He was in Afghanistan in the late 1990s.
He joined Al Qaeda in 2004, and became a deputy to the feared Al Qaeda chief in Iraq, Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi, who was killed in 2006 by an American drone strike.
Al-Qaduli was captured and imprisoned, but rejoined the Islamic State group in Syria after he was freed in 2012.
Last year, the US offered a five million dollar reward for the red-bearded Shishani, who had held several senior positions in ISIS, including “minister of war,” military adviser to al-Baghdadi.
