Coalition strike kills senior IS leader Wa'il Al-Fayad - Pentagon

Sep 17, 2016, 00:43

A Pentagon official, who requested anonymity, told the Washington Examiner that Dr. Wa'il was hit by a missile from a US drone as he got on a motorcycle outside his home.

"On September 7, coalition forces conducted a precision strike near Raqqah, Syria, that targeted and killed 'Dr".

Cook said Wa'il was one of ISIS's "most senior leaders" as a "prominent member" of the terror group's leadership council.

Cook said the U.S. and its coalition partners would continue to target IS, which holds territory in Iraq and Syria and has sympathizers in many other countries.

"Wa'il oversaw ISIL's production of terrorist propaganda videos showing torture and executions", Cook said in the statement, using an Arab acronym for the group.

Wa'il was a close associate of al-Adnani, said Cook.

A senior ISIS leader - thought to be the terror groups number three member - was killed earlier this month in a precision strike near the Syrian city of Raqqa, a USA official told Fox News. The group said Salman was responsible for ISIS propaganda and had been chosen to succeed the previous Minister of Information, Mohammad al-Adnani, who was killed by a U.S. drone strike in August. Russian Federation also claimed responsibility for the strike targeting al-Adnani, which the Pentagon refuted.

A US official said it has been confirmed that Wa'il was killed in the airstrike, which another official said was carried out by a drone targeting his home in Raqqah, ISIS's de facto capital in Syria.

The US has now killed in the last two months two of the "very few" ISIS leaders with direct access to Baghdadi, the official said.

One U.S. official said it was unclear if Wa'il outranked al-Adnani in ISIS's hierarchy.