The second-in-command of so-called Islamic State (IS) has been killed in a US operation in Syria, US media report.
Defence officials told NBC News that Abdul Rahman Mustafa al-Qaduli, an Iraqi who was also known as Hajji Iman, was killed during a raid this month.
The second-in-command of so-called Islamic State (IS) has been killed in a US operation in Syria, US media report.
Abdul Rahman Mustafa al-Qaduli, an Iraqi also known as Hajji Iman, died during a raid by US special forces on Thursday, officials told NBC News.
US Defence Secretary Ash Carter was expected to confirm the jihadist’s death and provide details of the raid in a statement at 14:30 GMT.
The US authorities had offered a reward of $7m (£5m) for Qaduli.
Defence officials told NBC correspondent Richard Engel that US special operations forces landed in helicopters in Syria early on Thursday morning.
They lay in wait as Qaduli drove past them in a car, and were able to stop it.
There was an attempt to capture Qaduli alive, but the situation escalated and the militant and three other people in the vehicle were killed, the officials said.
Qaduli, an ethnic Turkmen, was born in 1957 or 1959 in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, which has been controlled by IS since 2014.
He joined al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) – a precursor of IS – in 2004 under the leadership of the late Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, serving as his deputy and the local leader in Mosul, according to the US.
After his release from an Iraqi prison in early 2012, he joined IS forces in Syria.
Last year, some sources identified Qaduli as “Abu Alaa al-Afari”, who was said to have taken temporary charge of IS after its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was allegedly injured in an air strike.
Mr Carter will also confirm on Friday the death of the “minister of war” of IS earlier this month, according to the Daily Beast.
Tarkhan Batirashvili, a Georgian known as Omar Shishani, was the target of a US air strike in north-eastern Syria on 4 March, US officials say.
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