Top ISIL cmdr. 'likely died' in US strike in Syria: Officials
A high-ranking commander of the Takfiri Daesh group has been targeted in a US airstrike in Syria, officials say.
The American officials, who were speaking to various media outlets on condition of anonymity on Tuesday, did not elaborate on the fate of Omar al-Shishani.
The United States military and intelligence community is assessing whether he has been killed after the airstrike near the town of al-Shaddadi, situated in the south of the Hasakah province in northeastern Syria, on Friday.
One official said Shishani “likely died” after strikes by US warplanes and drones.
The US State Department has placed a $5 million reward on the commander’s head.
Known for his signature red beard, Shishani is said to have once been a member of an elite Georgian military unit.
Shishani, also known as Omar the Chechen, was reportedly fighting alongside the Georgian armed forces during the country’s short war against Russia in 2008.
Daesh terrorists, who were initially trained by the CIA in Jordan in 2012 to destabilize the Syrian government, now control large 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.
The terrorist “has held a number of top military positions within” Daesh, the Treasury said at the time, describing him as “a senior ISIL commander and Shura Council member located in al-Raqqah, Syria,” the de facto capital of Daesh.
Shishani, whose name was originally Tarkhan Tayumurazovich Batirashvili, was born in Georgia in 1986.
“He is considered to be a highly effective military leader and is rumored to be the ISIL’s military commander,” according to the Long War Journal.
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