United States Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter announced Friday that the U.S. military killed top Islamic State commander Abd al-Rahman Mustafa al-Qaduli this week, as part of a series of actions targeting Islamic State leadership.
Defense Secretary Ash Carter says the U.S. military killed ISIS senior leader Abd al-Rahman Mustafa al-Qaduli.https://t.co/YCefiALaQq
— Fox News (@FoxNews) March 25, 2016
Al-Qaduli, who was also known as Haji Iman, was widely reported as second in command in the Islamic State organization, and was the group’s finance minister.
Abdul Rahman Mustafa al-Qaduli, IS no.2, said to have been killed by US. Important strategic commander and likely heir to No.1
— Dominic Waghorn (@DominicWaghorn) March 25, 2016
“Leaders can be replaced, however, these leaders have been around for a long time,” Carter said.
“They are senior. They’re experienced. So eliminating them is an important objective and achieves an important result,” he added.
U.S. believes it killed ISIS' No. 2 commander, Abd al-Rahman Mustafa al-Qaduli, in Syria https://t.co/QJBSseNlEE https://t.co/qq4nOyP6v5
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) March 25, 2016
In addition to the death of al-Qaduli, the Pentagon confirmed the killing of another top leader, Omar al-Shishani, in an earlier operation.
Carter declined to provide further details about the operations.
It is not the first time that al-Qaduli, who uses several aliases has been announced dead. He was reported killed in Iraq last year.