OAK BLUFFS, Mass. (AP) — The Obama administration says the No. 2 leader of the Islamic State militant group is dead, killed in a U.S. military air strike in Iraq earlier this week.
National Security Council spokesman Ned Price says Fadhil Ahmad al-Hayali was traveling in a vehicle near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul when he was killed Tuesday.
As the senior deputy to Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, al-Hayali was the primary coordinator for moving large amounts of weapons, explosives, vehicles and people between Iraq and Syria.
Price characterized Al-Hayali's death as a blow to Islamic State operations because his influence spanned finance, media, operations and logistics for the group.
Also killed in the air strike was an Islamic State media operative known as Abu Abdullah.
Here's Price's full statement:
"Fadhil Ahmad al-Hayali, also known as Hajji Mutazz, the second in command of the terrorist group ISIL, was killed in a U.S. military air strike on August 18 while traveling in a vehicle near Mosul, Iraq, along with an ISIL media operative known as Abu Abdullah. Al-Hayali was an ISIL Shura Council member and, as the senior deputy to ISIL leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was a primary coordinator for moving large amounts of weapons, explosives, vehicles, and people between Iraq and Syria. He supported ISIL operations in both countries and was in charge of ISIL operations in Iraq,where he was instrumental in planning operations over the past two years, including the ISIL offensive in Mosul in June 2014. He was a member of Al Qa’ida in Iraq, the predecessor to ISIL, and previously served as ISIL’s Baghdad military emir and the emir of Ninawa Province. Al-Hayali’s death will adversely impact ISIL’s operations given that his influence spanned ISIL’s finance, media, operations, and logistics. The United States and its coalition partners are determined to degrade and destroy this terrorist group which has wrought so much harm and suffering on the people of the region and beyond."
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