Daesh leader likely killed in Syria raid

The Daesh group's battle-tested equivalent of a defence minister is believed to have been killed in a US air strike in Syria, a US official said on Tuesday.
The target of the March 4 attack was Omar Al Shishani, a Georgian fighting with the militant group in Syria, the Pentagon said in a statement. It said the result of the attack was still being assessed.
But a US official later said Al Shishani "likely died" in the assault by waves of US warplanes and drones, along with 12 other Daesh fighters.
Al Shishani is the nom de guerre of Tarkhan Batirashvili, a Georgian with a $5 million US bounty on his head. He is also known for his flowing red beard.
His death, if confirmed, would hinder Daesh's foreign recruitment efforts and its attempts to defend its strongholds in Syria and Iraq, the Pentagon statement said.
Al Shishani was "the Daesh equivalent of the Secretary of Defence," the US official said. The US Treasury designated him a foreign terrorist fighter in 2014, and said he maintained "unique authority" within Daesh.
Batirashvili comes from a town in Georgia that is populated mainly by ethnic Chechens, the official said.
He fought as a Chechen rebel against Russian forces before joining the Georgian military in 2006, and fought Russian forces again in Georgia in 2008.
After being discharged from the Georgian military on health grounds he entered Syria in 2012 and joined Daesh the next year, the official speaking on condition of anonymity said. Among his feats on his way to the top ranks of Daesh military operations, the official said, Batirashvili turned one rebel group into an effective fighting force to take on the Syrian army by "mixing Syrians who knew the terrain with the Chechens' fighting ability."
In the recent assault, waves of US aircraft struck near Al Shadadi, a town in northeastern Syria that was retaken from IS last month by local anti-Daesh fighters allied with the US-led coalition.
The US official said it was "unusual and noteworthy" that Batirashvili had travelled from the Daesh group's self-proclaimed capital of Raqa to Al Shadadi.
"This was likely to bolster the sagging morale of Daesh fighters there, who have suffered a series of defeats by Syrian Democratic Forces," the official said, alluding to one of the local, US-allied fighting groups.
The Pentagon statement described Batirashvili as "a battle-tested leader with experience who had led Daesh fighters in numerous engagements in Iraq and Syria."
If he did in fact die in the assault, his absence will especially hinder Daesh ability to recruit foreign fighters from Chechnya and the Caucasus regions, Cook said in the statement. - AFP
It would also undermine the group's ability to coordinate attacks and defend strongholds like Raqa, Syria, and Mosul in Iraq, it added.

• MENA