Iraq says airstrike ‘targeted and killed’ senior Islamic State commander

The second most senior member of Islamic State has been killed in a coalition airstrike, Iraq’s defence ministry has claimed. The airstrikes took place in Tal Afar in the north of the country and reports say the mosque where Abu Alaa al-Afari was at the time was hit. The ministry described al-Afari as a senior deputy to the Islamic State group’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. It did not offer a time for the strike, nor any specific casualty figures. It did offer a black-and-white video clip of an airstrike hitting a building.

Based on accurate intelligence, an airstrike by the coalition forces targeted the second in command of IS, Abu Alaa al-Afari.

the ministry of defence said in a statement

Pentagon spokesman Col. Steve Warren said the U.S. could not independently confirm the reports that al-Afari had been targeted. This wouldn’t be the first time Iraqi authorities put out incorrect information in its war against the Islamic State group, which holds a third of the country and neighboring Syria. In November, a Defense Ministry statement claiming that al-Baghdadi was wounded in an Iraqi airstrike was later retracted.

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