Iraqi State Television Reports 'Number Two of ISIS' Killed

Iraqi state television reports that the second-in-command of the leadership of the group known as the Islamic State was killed during an airstrike near the Syrian border. The Iraqi state network, on April 1, cited an 'intelligence report' stating that Iyad al-Jumaili, who is said to be 'the deputy of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi', the leader of the 'Islamic State', was killed along with 'several other ISIS commanders' at the Iraq-Syria border. The report adds that these individuals were targeted during an airstrike by the Iraqi army in the Al-Qaim area, a city in Anbar province on Iraq's western border, located 400 kilometers from Baghdad. The released report described Iyad Jumaili as the 'war minister' of the ISIS group. Previously, reports had emerged regarding the killing of another senior ISIS commander, also referred to as the 'war minister' of the so-called Islamic State; that individual was known as Omar Shishani (Chechen), and U.S. Department of Defense officials stated last month that he was targeted near the city of Shaddadi in Syria's Hasakah province. The recent report from Iraqi state television did not specify the date of the 'attack' mentioned. U.S. officials have not yet commented on this matter. Iraqi army forces, Kurdish Peshmerga, and pro-Baghdad militias, with the help of a coalition led by the United States, have been conducting operations since last October to retake Mosul, the most important city in Iraq currently under ISIS control. This operation is currently focused on the western areas of the city. Mosul is the city where the individual known as Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared the caliphate during major advances by his group in 2014. The real name of the ISIS leader is Ibrahim Awad Ibrahim Ali Muhammad al-Badri. He was born in 1971 (46 years old), likely near Samarra in Iraq. Rex Tillerson, the U.S. Secretary of State, stated at the beginning of April that Baghdadi 'will definitely be killed in the future.'