Seven senior Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) leaders have been killed in various airstrikes, the most recent being July 18, the Coalition and U.S. Department of Defense announced Thursday.
“The removal of these key ISIS leaders disrupts ISIS’s propaganda production, distribution, and the ability to fund ISIS’ terrorist activities,” the Coalition announced in a press release.
The Coalition said the following ISIS leaders were taken out:
- Abu Sulayman al-Iraqi, a senior ISIS propaganda official, was killed by a Coalition airstrike near Mosul, Iraq in early July. Al-Iraqi provided strategic guidance and production oversight for ISIS propaganda that recruited, indoctrinated and directed terrorists around the world.
- Bassam al-Jayfus, who handled ISIS funds for terror attacks, was killed by a Coalition airstrike in Mayadin, Syria, on July 18. His death causes a disruption to ISIS’s multi-national money laundering network, which is used to pay for foreign terrorist fighters as well as terror plotting and attacks throughout the world.
- Between May 25 and 27, ISIS senior media official Rayaan Meshaal was killed by a Coalition airstrike conducted near Mayadin, Syria. Meshaal was the head and founder of Amaq, ISIS’s official propaganda media outlet. Meshaal oversaw, authorized and disseminated ISIS digital propaganda to instigate and direct terror and recruit foreign terrorist fighters.
- Abu-Khattab al-Rawi, an ISIS media emir, was killed by a Coalition airstrike in Ba’aj, Iraq, on May 17. His death was previously announced by U.S. CENTCOM on May 26.
- Abu-Sayf al-‘Isawi, an ISIS media emir, was killed by a Coalition airstrike in al-Qa’im, Iraq, on April 27.
- Abu Ali al-Janubi, ISIS’s senior media director, was killed by a Coalition airstrike in Mayadin, Syria, on April 16.
- Ibrahim al-Ansari, an ISIS propaganda official, was killed by a Coalition airstrike in al-Qa’im, Iraq, on March 25. His death was previously announced by the CJTF-OIR, March 31, 2017.
The deaths of these terrorists eliminates senior leaders and facilitators with extensive experience and training, and degrades ISIS’s ability to plan and conduct attacks on civilian targets in Iraq and Syria, as well throughout the region and in the West.
“The Coalition will continue to exert pressure on ISIS senior leaders and associates across multiple networks in order to degrade, disrupt, and dismantle ISIS structures and remove the extremist terrorists throughout Iraq and Syria,” it said.
[revad2]
