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Iraqi Official, Syrian Activist: Senior IS Leader Dead

Tuesday, March 15, 2016 7:44 am | < 1 Minute Read
BAGHDAD (AP) —
FILE - This image made from undated video posted during the weekend of June 28, 2014 on a social media account frequently used for communications by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), which has been verified and is consistent with other AP reporting, shows Omar al-Shishani standing next to the group's spokesman among a group of fighters as they declare the elimination of the border between Iraq and Syria. An Iraqi official and a Syrian activist say senior Islamic State group leader Al-Shishani died Monday, March 15, 2016 outside Raqqa, Syria. Shishani was injured in a U.S. airstrikes last week and subsequently died from his wounds, the senior Iraqi intelligence official and Rami Abdurrahman, of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told the Associated Press. (AP Photo/militant social media account via AP video)
This image made from undated video posted in 2014 on a social media account frequently used for communications by the Islamic State terror group shows Omar al-Shishani standing next to the group’s spokesman among a group of terrorists as they declare the elimination of the border between Iraq and Syria. (AP Photo/militant social media account via AP video)

A senior Iraqi intelligence official and the head of a Syrian activist group say top Islamic State terror group leader Omar al-Shishani has died outside the IS stronghold of Raqqa in Syria.

The official and Rami Abdurrahman, of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, say al-Shishani died on Monday of wounds suffered in a U.S. airstrike last week.

Al-Shishani, a read-bearded ethnic Chechen, was one of the most prominent IS commanders, serving as the group’s military commander in Syria.

Abdurrahman says IS “brought a number of doctors to treat him, but they were not able to.” The Iraqi official spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to talk to the media.

Despite some territorial losses, IS still controls large swaths of territory in Iraq and Syria.

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