ISIS confirms death of senior militant Omar Al Shishani
The Islamic State has confirmed the death of Omar al-Shishani, a senior ISIS commander who was mistakenly reported dead in March.
In a posting on its Amaq newswire, the militant group said Shishani was “martyred in #Shirqat as he participated in clashes to repel the campaign against the city of #Mosul.”
Earlier today, CNN reported the Pentagon was working to verify the results of a U.S. airstrike near Qaryah, south of Mosul, Iraq, although officials would not confirm the target.
Shishani, whose real name was Tarkhan Tayumurazovich Batirashvili and dubbed the Islamic State’s “Minister of War,” was the target of a U.S. airstrike back in March. At the time, U.S. officials believed they had killed him, but ISIS claimed days later that he had survived with serious injuries.
Shishani was a former sergeant in the Georgian army who turned to jihad after being discharged, fighting various Islamist groups in Syria before joining the Islamic State in May 2013.
The U.S. Treasury Department put Shishani on the global terrorist list in 2014 and offered a $5 million bounty for his capture.