IS Group: Spokesman Killed in Syria

BEIRUT (AP) -- The Islamic State group's spokesman and chief strategist, who laid out the blueprint for the extremist group's attacks against the West, has been killed while overseeing operations in northern Syria, the group has announced.

The IS-run Aamaq news agency said Abu Mohammed al-Adnani was "martyred while surveying the operations to repel the military campaigns in Aleppo." It did not provide any further details on when or how he died.

A later statement issued by the Islamic State group in Aleppo province vowed to avenge his death. Both statements were released late Tuesday evening.









Al-Adnani also disparaged Saudi Arabia and its influential clerics for failing to rally behind the rebels that the monarchy supports in Syria, as they did decades ago in Afghanistan.

In Washington, Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook confirmed that a U.S. airstrike on Tuesday targeted al-Adnani in the Syrian city of al-Bab, which is northeast of Aleppo.

"We are still assessing the results of the strike, but Al-Adnani's removal from the battlefield would mark another significant blow to (the Islamic State group)," Cook said.


The Islamic State group statement vowed revenge against the "filthy cowards in the sect of disbelief." It said a generation raised in IS-held territory would avenge al-Adnani's death.



It has also lost some of its most senior commanders and founding members over the past year, including its "minister of war" Omar al-Shishani, feared Iraqi militant Shaker Wuhayeb, also known as Abu Wahib, and a top finance official known by several names, including Abu Ali Al-Anbari.