U.S. Says It Believes It Killed Islamic State’s Second-in-Command

WASHINGTON – The United States believes it has killed the Islamic State’s second-in-command, Abd al-Rahman Mustafa al-Qaduli, U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said at a press conference Friday morning, confirming earlier media reports.

“We are systematically eliminating ISIL’s Cabinet. Indeed, the U.S. military killed several key terrorists this week, including, we believe Haji Imam,” Carter said, using al-Qaduli’s nom de guerre and the U.S. government’s acronym for the jihadist outfit.

He added that the terrorist suspect had served as IS’s finance minister and was responsible for its external affairs.

Asked about the significance of killing al-Qaduli, Carter said “as you know leaders can be replaced. These leaders have been around for a long time – they are senior and experienced and eliminating them is an important objective and result.”

The attack was carried out Thursday by U.S. special forces in Syria, CNN reported earlier, saying the United States had been tracking the IS leader’s movements for some time.

But neither Carter nor Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, provided further details of the operation.

Al-Qaduli was one of four “key” IS leaders identified by the United States, which in May 2015 had offered an award of up to $7 million for information leading to his capture or death.

The State Department described him then as “a senior ISIL official who rejoined ISIL following his release from prison in early 2012. He traveled to Syria where he has worked with an ISIL network.”

Al-Qaduli originally joined Al Qaeda in Iraq, a precursor of IS, in 2004 and served as AQI leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s deputy and as AQI emir of Mosul, Iraq, according to the State Department.

The U.S. Treasury Department named al-Qaduli as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist in May 2014, it added.

The announcement of al-Qaduli’s death comes 11 days after the United States confirmed that senior IS commander Abu Omar al-Shishani, also known as Omar the Chechen, had died in a U.S. airstrike in Syria 10 days earlier.