ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The Kurdistan Region’s Security Council confirmed Friday that Islamic State (ISIS) leader Abu Bakr Baghdadi’s deputy for military affairs in Mosul had been killed in US airstrikes this week.
“Shihab Ahmad Hassas al-Lihebi, who is also known as Abu Saad and was the main assistant of Abu Bakr Baghdadi for military affairs, was killed on Wednesday,” the council said in a statement.
It added that another ISIS leader named Fathi, and known as Abu Abdulla, was also killed by coalition airstrikes.
The council’s statement accused al-Lihebi of involvement in the killing of hundreds of Yezidis in Shingal, as well as the bombing of the Nabi Younis shrine in Mosul.
The statement said al-Lihebi belonged to the Lihebi tribe, which had joined al-Qaeda after the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003. It said he was known inside al-Qaeda as Abu Qatada, and that he later joined ISIS and became its security chief in Mosul.
Pentagon officials said this week that three senior ISIS leaders had been killed in recent weeks by US airstrikes in Iraq, including what it described as the terror group’s right-hand man.
US officials say that Haji Mutazz, described as a “deputy wali” and al-Baghdadi’s right-hand man, was killed in early December. They also name Abd al Basit, described as the head of ISIS military operations in Iraq, among those killed.
