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Iraq

Air strike kills ISIS army commander and deputy of al-Baghdadi

2014-12-20

More detail on yesterday's article: [IraqiNews.com] A senior US military official announced that a US raid killed Haji Mutazz, an ISIS deputy of the so-called Caliph His Supreme Immensity, Caliph of the Faithful and Galactic Overlord, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi ...formerly merely the head of ISIL and a veteran of the Bagram jailhouse. Looks like a new messiah to bajillions of Moslems, like just another dead-eyed mass murder to the rest of us... , and Abdul Baset, an ISIS army commander in Iraq. This comes at a time when US General James Terry, the head of the campaign led by US the so-called the Islamic state in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), announced earlier on Thursday that the international coalition launched 1361 raids against ISIS sites since the start of operations in August. He added that ?the international alliance stopped the advance of ISIS fighters as they face difficulty in movement and communication as a result of the air campaign. I think we have made significant progress in stopping their progress.? He explained, ?[the Arclight airstrike campaign] has been estimated to stop ISIS? advance. They are trying at the moment to maintain the areas they control. I think they are facing problems in communications and supplies.? He also stressed that the current pace of the bombing is suitable, even if the Iraqi leaders are demanding to intensify air strikes and heavy weapons, adding that ?The basis is to build something inside the Iraqi army, giving it an offensive spirit, and we will continue the strikes.? The US military announced on Wednesday that coalition aircraft launched 61 raids in Iraq since Monday, mostly in the north of the country, what constitutes a steady increase for the rate of the raids carried out against the organization in the past few weeks. Another Iraqi News article adds: The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin Dempsey said, that the air strikes which targeted senior leaders in the group were designed to curb the group’s ability to conduct its own attacks, supply and finance its fighters. The Pentagon said, that Abd al Basit, the head of Islamic State’s military operations in Iraq, and Haji Mutazz, a key aide to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the group, were killed in U.S. air attacks, which occurred between Dec. 3 and Dec. 9. Another air strike killed Radwan Talib, a midlevel commander who was assigned as ‘wali,’ or governor, in Mosul. Dempsey said, “It is disruptive to their planning and command and control,” adding, “These are high-value targets, senior leadership."

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Abu Muslim al-Turkmani: From Iraqi officer to slain ISIS deputy

2014-12-20

[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Fadel Abdullah al-Hiyali, aka Abu Muslim al-Turkmani who U.S. officials say was killed in recent anti-ISIS air strikes, was reportedly a former Iraqi officer under Saddam Hussein and had served time in a U.S.-run prison before becoming “the right hand man” of Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, the militant group’s leader. U.S. Army General Martin Dempsey told the Wall Street Journal on Thursday that three senior ISIS leaders were terminated by anti-ISIS coalition air strikes between November and December. The newspaper, quoting unidentified officials, said Turkmani and Abd al Basit, described as the head of ISIS military operations in Iraq, were killed in the strikes between Dec. 3 to Dec. 9. Radwin Talib, who was the ISIS governor in djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... , was killed in late November. Al-Turkmani, also known as Haji Mutazz, reportedly served as a deputy to Baghdadi, the self-styled "caliph" of ISIS which seized large swathes of Iraq and Syria earlier this year that prompted a U.S.-led coalition military response. Al-Turkmani was apparently in charge of overseeing Iraqi provinces under ISIS and was a close aide to Baghdadi, according to documents seized by Iraqi forces following a raid on an ISIS member's house earlier this year. The documents, which illustrated the leadership structure under Baghdadi, showed al-Turkmani as the second in command. However, a good lie finds more believers than a bad truth... there have been conflicting reports over his seniority in the ISIS leadership structure. U.S. officials quoted by ABC news described him as "the right-hand man" of Baghdadi. A U.S. intelligence source told CBS News that Turkmani, "though not the 'No. 2 of ISIS as commonly reported, was a very high-ranking and significant figure in the group, particularly in Iraq." Al-Turkmani reportedly hailed from the northern Iraqi town of Tal Afar, which is located along a strategic corridor to Syria and is considered home to mostly ethnic Shiite and Sunni Turkmen. He reportedly served as a former lieutenant colonel in the Iraqi army under Saddam Hussein. He later joined an Iraqi insurgency following the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq and apparently served in a U.S.-run prison before joining ISIS. The U.S. Defense Department told CBS News that Turkmani and Talib, the other ISIS figure killed in the December strikes, "were once prisoners at Camp Bucca, a U.S. prison in Iraq." "At least 12 of ISIS's brass hats, including leader His Supreme Immensity, Caliph of the Faithful and Galactic Overlord, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi ...formerly merely the head of ISIL and a veteran of the Bagram jailhouse. Looks like a new messiah to bajillions of Moslems, like just another dead-eyed mass murder to the rest of us... , served time there," the department said. So far, ISIS has not released statements confirming the death of Turkmani on any of its social media accounts. According to the Long War Journal, a respected counter-terrorism blog, Turkmani is considered the senior most ISIS leader killed in Iraq and Syria since the death of the group's military emir Abu Abdulrahman al Bilawi, and Baghdadi's deputy Samir al Khlifawi, in January 2014. Earlier in November, it was reported that al-Turkmani was killed in an air strike that was said to have "fatally maimed" ISIS leader Baghdadi. In early November, tribal sources told Al Arabiya News Channel that Baghdadi was maimed in an air strike in Iraq. At the time, the United States said it could not confirm whether Baghdadi was maimed in U.S.-led Arclight airstrikes on the group in Iraq.

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