The spokesman for ISIS Abu Mohammed Al-Adnani has reportedly been killed in Aleppo yesterday whilst “inspecting military operations”.
The terrorist organisation said in a statement that it posted on its website that Abu Mohammad Al-Adnani Ashami was killed “while inspecting military operations in the city of Aleppo”. It is still not clear how Al-Adnani was killed, and a US official said that Washington launched an air strike in the Al-Bab area in Syria yesterday. The strike targeted a senior unnamed official according to news agencies, but local sources said in media reports yesterday that the international coalition targeted the car that Al-Adnani was travelling in on Tuesday afternoon at the Qedairan junction which is on the outskirts of Al-Bab city.
Experts on terrorism consider Al-Adnani, who was born in Syria in 1977 in the city of Saraqib in the governorate of Idlib, as one of the most important leaders of ISIS because of his ability to recruit fighters from all over the world. Al-Adnani, a close associate of ISIS’ leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, is known as “Amir Asham” within the organisation. His real name or identity is not known, but it is said that he was the organisation’s main propaganda chief. Prior to joining ISIS, Al-Adnani was a member of Al-Qaeda. He then moved to Al-Nusra Front before taking up an important position in the ranks of ISIS.
The US State Department allocated a reward of $ 5 million in May last year for anyone who provided information about Al-Adnani. This came in a statement that announced that the US Department of State’s Rewards for Justice Programme is offering rewards for information on four key leaders of the terrorist group ISIS.
The statement said that “The Secretary of State has authorized rewards of up to $7 million for information on ‘Abd al-Rahman Mustafa al-Qaduli; up to $5 million each for information on Abu Mohammed Al-Adnani and Tarkhan Tayumurazovich Batirashvili; and up to $3 million for information on Tariq Bin-Al-Tahar Bin Al- Falih Al-‘Awni Al-Harzi.”
