US air strikes kill IS chief
Military targeted group’s finance minister involved in terror plots
US FORCES have killed a senior Islamic State leader in a series of strikes against leading members of the terrorist organisation.
US Defence Secretary Ash Carter identified the IS leader as Haji Imam and described him as the group’s finance minister.
He said he was a “well-known terrorist” who had a hand in terror plots outside of Iraq and Syria.
“Leaders can be replaced. However, these leaders have been around for a long time.
They are senior, they are experienced,” Mr Carter told a Pentagon news conference.
Mr Carter did not say whether the IS finance leader was killed in Syria or Iraq.
Appearing at the news conference with Mr Carter, General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said there has been no fundamental shift in the US approach in Iraq, and he said efforts are under way to accelerate the campaign.
The US military has killed numerous IS leaders in recent months.
Earlier this month the Pentagon said it killed Omar al-Shishani, described as the Islamic State’s “minister of war”, in an air strike in Syria.
In November, the Pentagon said an air strike in Libya killed Abu Nabil, another top IS leader.
The strikes came as Syrian soldiers recaptured the old citadel of Palmyra overlooking the city’s ancient ruins in an offensive that could open up much of eastern Syria to government forces.
The recapture of Palmyra, which the Islamist militants seized in May 2015, would mark the biggest single gain for President Bashar al-Assad since Russia intervened last September and turned the tide of the fiveyear conflict in his favour.
Palmyra is the site of some of the most extensive ruins of the ancient Roman empire, and temples and tombs were dynamited by IS fighters in what the United Nations has described as a war crime.
The city controls routes east into the heartland of territory held by the militants, who have proclaimed a “caliphate” to rule over all Muslims from swathes of Syria and Iraq.
The scale of yesterday’s fighting reflected how much of a strategic prize the city represents, with jets launching dozens of air strikes and soldiers firing mortar barrages, while Islamic State fighters hit back with two car bombings.
Russian warplanes have contin- ued to support the Syrian army and its allies as they push their offensive on the desert city, despite Moscow’s recent announcement that it was withdrawing the bulk of its military forces.
Russia’s Interfax news agency reported a Russian special forces soldier was killed near Palmyra last week.
Beirut-based television channel Al-Mayadeen, broadcasting from the edge of Palmyra, showed a low-flying jet carry out three air strikes against what it said were IS fighters withdrawing from the old citadel back into Palmyra.
Syria’s antiquities chief Maamoun Abdulkarim said driving Islamic State out of Palmyra would be a victory for the whole world. He said: “After all the tragedy we have suffered in Syria for five years, and the 10 months in Palmyra after it fell... it’s the first time we feel joy.”