The US military announced today that it killed the Islamic State’s “Minister of Information” and central shura member in an airstrike near Raqqah, the jihadist group’s capital in Syria, ten days ago. Wa’il Adil Hasan Salman al-Fayad, the information minister who was also known as Dr. Wa’il, is the second top Islamic State leader killed by the US in the last three weeks.
Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook announced Dr. Wa’il’s death in a statement released by the Department of Defense . Wa’il was the target of “a precision strike.” The Islamic State has not officially announced the death of Wa’il.
“He operated as the Minister of Information for the terror organization and was a prominent member of its Senior Shura Council – ISIL’s leadership group,” Cook stated, using the outdated acronym ISIL to describe the Islamic State.
As information minister, “Wa’il oversaw ISIL’s production of terrorist propaganda videos showing torture and executions.” The Islamic State’s brutal execution videos, which include beheadings, burning people alive, drownings and crucifixions, have played a key role in recruiting violent fighters across the globe.
Wa’il was also a “close associate” of Abu Muhammad al Adnani, the Islamic State’s top spokesman who also served as the group’s external operations chief and a senior recruiter.
Adnani was killed just nine days before Wa’il. Adnani was one of the Islamic State’s most prominent leaders. He announced the establishment of the caliphate and formation of the Islamic State in 2014, and has been at the forefront in calling for sectarian attacks inside of Iraq and Syria as well as attacks against the West.
The Islamic State announced Adnani’s death on Aug. 30, and said he was killed along with other fighters while directing military operations in the Syrian town of Al Bab. The US military confirmed Adnani’s death 14 days after the Islamic State announced he was killed. [See LWJ reports, Islamic State says senior official killed in Aleppo province and US confirms it killed Islamic State’s spokesman and external operations chief.]
The US military has targeted and killed several key Islamic State leaders over the past several months as the jihadist group has lost key terrain in both Iraq and Syria. Abu Omar al Shishani is one of the most important Islamic State commanders who have been killed by the US since it began launching airstrikes in Iraq and Syria in the summer of 2014. He was an ethnic Chechen from Georgia whom the US claimed was the group’s overall military commander. The US killed Shishani in an airstrike near Mosul in July 2016.
Another important Islamic State leader who was killed by the US was Abu Wahib, the notorious military commander who was responsible for overrunning much of Anbar province in 2014. Abu Wahib waged jihad with al Qaeda during the US occupation and escaped from an Iraqi prison in 2012 to rejoin the fight. The US killed him in an airstrike in May 2016.
The US military has also scored successful kills against the Islamic State’s leadership outside of Iraq and Syria. The most prominent leader killed by the US outside of Iraq and Syria was Hafiz Saeed Khan, the Islamic State’s emir for Khorasan province, or Afghanistan and Pakistan. A former mid-level commander in the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, Khan was killed in a US airstrike in Afghanistan’s eastern province of Nangarhar in July 2016.
