ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — The Islamic State’s finance minister in Mosul was killed by a booby trap while returning from the town of Gayara to the group’s stronghold of Mosul on Tuesday, a Kurdish official told Rudaw. “ISIS Finance Minister Mohammed Zaalan al-Afari was killed in a booby trap ambush on the Gayara-Mosul road after he took part in the opening of a women’s prison for those not committed to sexual jihad,” Saeed Mamuzini, a media officer of the Kurdistan Democratic Party’s (KDP) 17th branch in Mosul, told Rudaw. Sexual jihad is a controversial practice within jihadi groups where women voluntarily offer themselves in a sexual comfort role to fighters. “Alongside Afari four other militants were killed by the booby trap,” Mamuzini added. The Mosul Independent Youth have claimed responsibility for the attack, Mamuzini continued. According to information obtained by Rudaw, Afari was an Iraqi army officer prior to joining extremist jihadi groups in 2004. He allegedly had close ties with the Islamic State’s Caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and slain Al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
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