Islamic State Spokesman Killed In New Raid In Northwestern Syria
(RFE/RL) — The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) say a spokesman for the Islamic State (IS) extremist group was killed in a joint operation with the United States.
The operation came hours after U.S. President Donald Trump announced on October 27 that IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed in a U.S. raid in Syria.
SDF Commander in Chief Mazloum Abdi said on Twitter that IS spokesman Abu Hassan al-Muhajir was “targeted” in a village near the town of Jarablus, near the border with Turkey, in a coordinated operation between SDF intelligence and the U.S. Army.
In a later post on Twitter, SDF spokesman Mustefa Bali said Muhajir had been killed.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a London-based monitoring group, confirmed Muhajir’s death, saying he was among five IS members who were killed in a U.S.-led operation backed by the SDF.
“The two U.S.-led operations have effectively disabled top [IS] leadership who were hiding” in northwestern Syria, Bali said, adding that “more still remain hiding in the same area.”
Trump on October 27 announced Baghdadi, the world’s most-wanted man, was killed in a nighttime raid by U.S. special operations forces in northwestern Syria.
Trump said that U.S. forces killed a “large number” of IS militants during the raid, which culminated in Baghdadi being cornered in a tunnel where he detonated a suicide vest.
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