The Pentagon says it has succeeded in taking another senior Islamic State leader off the battlefield.
Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said the U.S. has confirmed that a precision airstrike Sept. 7 near Raqqa, Syria, killed “Dr. Wa’il”, also known as Wa’il Adil Hasan Salman al-Fayad, one of the Islamic State’s most senior leaders.
A Pentagon official, who requested anonymity, told the Washington Examiner that Dr. Wa’il was hit by a missile from a U.S. drone as he got on a motorcycle outside his home. No one else was hit in the strike.
The Pentagon said Dr. Wa’il was essentially the Islamic State’s minister of information and was a prominent member of the terrorist group’s Senior Shura Council, the Islamic State’s leadership organization.
“Wa’il oversaw ISIL’s production of terrorist propaganda videos showing torture and executions,” Cook said in a statement issued Friday afternoon. “He was a close associate of Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, the ISIL spokesman and leader for plotting and inspiring external terror attacks.”
The Pentagon confirmed this week that al-Adnani was killed in a drone strike near al Bab, northeast of Aleppo, on Aug. 30.
“The removal of ISIL’s senior leaders degrades its ability to retain territory, and its ability to plan, finance and direct attacks inside and outside of the region,” Cook said. “We will continue to work with our coalition partners to build momentum in the campaign to deal ISIL a lasting defeat.”
