Pentagon confirms targeted strike aimed at ISIS war minister

An Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) leader who the Pentagon reported as dead in March was killed by an airstrike near Mosul, an ISIS-linked news agency said.

On Thursday, the Pentagon confirmed that the U.S.-led coalition conducted a Sunday airstrike against an ISIS meeting where Abu Omar al-Shishani — often described as ISIS’s minister of war — is believed to have been present.

“On July 10, the coalition conducted a strike on an ISIL leadership meeting near Mosul, in which we believe that Omar Shishani was present, along with 16 other [ISIS] leaders,” Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said at a briefing. “We are still working to confirm the outcome of that airstrike.”

Georgian-born Tarkhan Tayumurazovich Batirashvili was also known as Abu Omar Al-Shishani and “Omar the Chechen.”  

Amaq news agency, which ISIS regularly uses to issue reports, said Wednesday that al-Shishani died in combat in the Iraqi city of Shirqat, south of Mosul.

Amaq denied al-Shishani’s death in March, after the United States touted the strike against him.

At the time, Pentagon officials said al-Shishani had likely been killed in the strike. 

When reports then surfaced that he was not, Pentagon officials revised their assessment to say he was injured in the attack, and died a few days later.

On Thursday, Cook defended the Pentagon’s March statements and said the intelligence at that time indicated that al-Shishani had been killed.

“The intelligence that we had at the time led us to believe that he had been killed,” Cook said. “We recognized at that time that our intelligence picture was incomplete, so we’ve been careful … , as we are with all these strikes, to indicate the possibility that there could have been a different outcome.”

New intelligence led to the Sunday strike, Cook said, while declining to say what specifically indicated al-Shishani was still alive and at the meeting.

“I’m not going to get into other intelligence about what led us to believe that he may have been at this meeting,” Cook said.

Al-Shishani’s presence at the meeting, Cook added, indicates the importance ISIS is placing on that area as Iraqi forces prepare to retake Mosul.

“His removal from the battlefield is a significant blow to ISIL,” Cook said, using al alternate acronym for the group. “And it is a step forward for our campaign against ISIL, as we continue to target their leadership.”