BREAKING: # ISIS 'Amaq reported that ISIS spokesman Abu Muhammad al-'Adnani was killed in # Aleppo
The Chief Spokesman For The Islamic State Is Dead
This undated militant image provided by SITE Intelligence Group shows Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, the Islamic State militant group’s spokesman whom ISIS said was “martyred” in northern Syria. (SITE Intelligence Group/AP)
The Islamic State reported the death of its chief spokesman, Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, on Tuesday, potentially signaling the loss of a senior militant who has steered the group’s campaign to bring violent operations to the West.
If confirmed, Adnani’s death would damage the Islamic State in two areas that have made the terrorist organization particularly dangerous: its sophisticated use of social media to reach a global audience and its willingness to employ the crudest forms of violence in scattered plots outside Iraq and Syria.
It would be a significant blow at a time when the group is already fending off attacks from Western-backed forces on the ground and a two-year air campaign that has deprived it of territory and resources.
In a tweet, the Amaq news agency, the Islamic State’s media arm, said Adnani was killed while inspecting troops in Aleppo, Syria. It did not say exactly when, where or how Adnani died. Aleppo is the name of the northern Syrian city that has been the site of years of fierce battles, and also of the province surrounding it.
In a longer statement posted on Telegram, Amaq boasted of the group’s resilience despite Adnani’s death. “The blood of the sheikhs will only make it more firm on the path of jihad and determination to take revenge and assault,” Amaq said, according to a statement from the SITE Intelligence Group.
Adnani’s death has been rumored several times before. U.S. officials could not immediately confirm the report of Adnani’s death, but a senior defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity to comment on an evolving situation, said that aircraft belonging to the U.S.-led coalition had targeted a “senior leader” from the Islamic State in Bab, a city in northern Aleppo province, on Tuesday. It was not clear whether that leader was Adnani.
“We are still assessing the results of the operation at this time,” the official said.
As U.S. warplanes continue their long air war against Islamic State targets in Syria, recent American strikes have been focused on areas in eastern and far northern Syria. Russian and Syrian aircraft meanwhile have continued to pound targets in the city of Aleppo , which has been gripped by intense fighting between government-backed forces and rebels in a parallel battle to the U.S. campaign against the Islamic State.
A Syrian national born Taha Sobhi Falaha, Adnani was among a core group of Islamic State operatives who could claim direct ties to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian extremist who launched the organization then known as al-Qaeda in Iraq after the U.S. invasion of 2003.
An image taken in 2013 from a video uploaded on YouTube in 2012 of Abu Muhammad al-Adnani. (AFP/YouTube/AFP/Getty Images)
“He was their most prolific and public spokesman,” said Will McCants, a former State Department official and expert on the Islamic State. “The war of words between al-Qaeda and ISIS, the justification for war on the West — that was all Adnani’s doing.”
Like Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State, Adnani is believed to have been held in U.S. military custody in Iraq roughly a decade ago, only to be released and help the organization survive near-extinction to reemerge later as the Islamic State.
Because of his Syrian nationality, al-Qaeda relied on Adnani to help the organization establish a foothold in Syria as the country fell into civil war. But Adnani later helped orchestrate the Iraq-base affiliate’s split from al-Qaeda, a rupture that led to the formation of the Islamic State and its rapid emergence as a terrorist group with more followers and violent capacity than its parent organization had amassed in years.
In statements announcing Adnani’s death, the Islamic State described him as a descendant of the tribe and family of the Prophet Muhammad, a clue that Adnani was possibly being groomed as a replacement for Baghdadi if the ISIS leader were to be killed, McCants said.
I would think we can expect a terrorist attack somewhere.
I agree, we can expect a terrorist attack.
One less terrorist, and at his postion, one that may be hard to replace.
I hope this helps.