Several key leaders of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
(ISIL), including its finance minister, were killed in an airstrike in
Syria this week, according to US Secretary of Defense Ash Carter. Carter
told a press conference in Washington on Friday that US forces had
killed Abd al-Rahman Mustafa al-Qaduli, also known as Haji Iman, which
would mark a further erosion of the group’s leadership.
“We are systematically eliminating ISIL’s cabinet,” Carter told
reporters, referring to the man as Haji Iman and saying he managed the
group’s finances. “The removal of this ISIL leader will hamper the
ability for them to conduct operations inside and outside of Iraq and
Syria.”
Carter said Qaduli had been in the ranks of ISIL, also known as ISIS,
since its earliest incarnaton as al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Iraq. Al Jazeera’s Alan Fisher, reporting
from Washington, said Carter had “stopped short of calling him ISIL’s
number two,” referring to the fact that some reports named Qaduli as the
group’s second-in-command. “We also have to add a note of caution,”
Fisher said. “That’s because back in May 2015, the Iraqis said they had
killed him in an air strike.”
US special forces carried out the strike, officials told the Reuters
news agency. The original plan was to capture, not kill, Qaduli. But
after the commandos’ helicopter was fired on from the ground, the
decision was made to fire from the air, one of the officials said. The
killing, if confirmed, would be the second of a top ISIL commander in
recent weeks. Earlier this month, the Pentagon said a man known as “Omar
the Chechen” had died from wounds he sustained in a US-led coalition
strike in northeastern Syria.
