Isis second-in-command ‘killed in Iraq airstrike’

Ayad al-Jumaili, believed to be a deputy of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, has been killed by an airstrike in western Iraq, an Iraqi intelligence spokesman said.

Jumaili, believed to have been the second-in-command of the terrorist group, was hit by the country’s air force near the region of al-Qaim near the Syrian border, Iraqi state TV reported, although no dates or details were provided about the raid.

He was killed along with other Isis commanders in a strike by the Iraqi air force, a military intelligence spokesman told Reuters.

Iraqi state TV said he was known by the alias “Abu Yahya, the war minister.”

“The air force’s planes executed with accuracy a strike on the headquarters of [Isis] in al-Qaim … resulting in the killing of [Isis’s] second-in-command … Ayad al-Jumaili,” state TV said earlier, citing a statement from the directorate of military intelligence.

The US led anti-Islamic State coalition said it was unable to confirm the report. 

Al-Jumaili was reportedly the head of the group’s internal security unit which has carried out public beheading, beatings and rape.

Before joining the extremist groups, he served as an intelligence officer in the Iraqi army until 2003 when Saddam Hussein's regime was overthrown. He led Isis’s top security agency in Iraq and Syria, known as Amniya, answering directly to Baghdadi, according to experts.

The strike is part of Iraqi forces extensive effort to retake the city of Mosul, Islamic State's stronghold in Iraq. Iraqi and US-led forces have been battling since October to retake Mosul where Baghdadi declared a caliphate nearly three years ago.

Nearly 290,000 people have fled the city to escape the fighting, according to the United Nations.

US and Iraqi officials believe Baghdadi has left operational commanders with diehard followers to fight the battle of Mosul, and is now hiding out in the desert with senior commanders. A separate battle is in preparation in Syria to drive Islamic State from its stronghold there, the city of Raqqa.

The last official report about Baghdadi was from the Iraqi military on Feb. 13. Iraqi F-16s carried out a strike on a house where he was thought to be meeting other commanders, in western Iraq, near the Syrian border, they said in a statement.

More than 40 leading members of the group have been killed in coalition air strikes, according to experts. Baghdadi has not officially appointed a successor.