The U.S.-led coalition killed a major Islamic State commander this month, Defense Secretary Ash Carter said Friday, adding that the coalition is “systemically eliminating ISIL’s cabinet.”
Carter said Haji Imam was killed in an operation by coalition forces. Imam “was an ISIL leader, senior leader, serving as a finance minister and who also is responsible for some external affairs and plots. He was a well-known terrorist within ISIL’s ranks, dating back to its earliest iteration as Al Qaeda in Iraq,” Carter said. “He worked under [Abu Musab al] Zarqawi as its liaison for operations with Pakistan. The removal of this ISIL leader will hamper the organization’s ability to conduct operations both inside and outside of Iraq and Syria.”
Carter declined to give further details on Imam’s death, but the Daily Beast reported that it involved U.S. special operations forces and a raid on the leader’s vehicle in Syria.
“This is the second senior ISIL leader we’ve successfully targeted this month, after confirming the death of ISIL’s so-called minister of war,” Carter said. “A few months ago, when I said we were going to go after ISIL’s financial infrastructure, we started with the storage sites where it holds its cash, and now we’ve taken out the leader who oversees all the funding for ISIL’s operations, hurting their ability to pay fighters and hire recruits.
“As I said, our campaign plan is first and foremost to collapse ISIL’s parent tumor in Iraq and Syria, focusing on its power center in Raqqa and Mosul,” he said. “In Syria, motivated local forces that we support recently took the town of Shaddadi, repelled ISIL’s counterattacks, and ultimately severed the main artery between Syria and northern Iraq, and as a result it’s become much harder for ISIL’s leaders and forces to travel between Raqqa and Mosul.”
Imam, whose real name is said to be Abd ar-Rahman Mustafa al-Qaduli, was considered in line to succeed Islamic State leader Omar al-Baghdadi. However, some said his Turkoman background would have prevented that from happening, according to reports.
I’m also pleased to see that Iraqi security forces have moved from their staging base at Makhmour, and are advancing in new positions as part of early stages of operations to collapse ISIL’s control over Mosul. The U.S. Marines we’ve sent near Makhmour … are now providing artillery fire at the request of the Iraqis, to help support the ISF advance against the enemy and protect their forces,” Carter said. “So in both Syria and Iraq, we’re seeing important steps to shape what will become crucial battles in the months to come.
Carter said forces also targeted another Islamic State leader who also paid fighters in Iraq. “Next, we targeted a number of ISIL associates who were directly involved in external plotting and training. And these precise actions came after recent strikes that destroyed a significant quantity of improvised explosive devices and bomb-making equipment that could have been used against our partners headed for Mosul,” he said. “We believe these actions have been successful and done damage to ISIL.”
Carter also announced that on April 20, officials will gather in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to convene a U.S.-Gulf Cooperation Council defense ministerial meeting. This will be ahead of President Obama’s participation in a leaders’ summit the next day.
