It’s a message that’s starting to resonate among ISIS fighters who are beginning to desert the front lines in droves: Wage jihad against the United States, and our Air Force will find you.
That’s what happened to topĀ Islamic State commander and feared ethnic Chechen jihadi fighter Omar al-Shishani, who died Monday of wounds suffered in a U.S. airstrike in Syria, a senior Iraqi intelligence official and the head of a Syrian activist group said.
Al-Shishani, who was wounded in the airstrike earlier this month, died outside the Islamic State group’s main stronghold of Raqqa in Syria, the two sources said.
The red-bearded ethnic Chechen was one of the most prominent and senior ISIS commanders, who earlier served as the group’s military commander for the territory it controls in Syria. He later became the commander of the group’s ground forces, according to Hisham al-Hashimi, an Iraqi scholar and author who closely follows the group.
According to Rami Abdurrahman, of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights which tracks the Syrian conflict through a network of activists on the ground, after al-Shishani was wounded, ISIS “brought a number of doctors to treat him, but they were not able to.”
Abdurrahman said al-Shishani died in a hospital in the eastern suburbs of Raqqa. The Iraqi intelligence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to talk to the media, said the ISIS commander was buried in Deir el-Zour on Tuesday.
Al-Shishani, whose real name is Tarkhan Batirashvili, was an ethnic Chechen from the Caucasus nation of Georgia, specifically from the Pankisi Valley, a center of Georgia’s Chechen community and once a stronghold for militants.
A U.S. airstrike targeted al-Shishani on March 4 near the town of Shaddadeh in Syria, Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook told reporters in a statement last week.
Al-Shishani “had been sent to Shaddadeh to bolster ISIL fighters following a series of strategic defeats,” Cook said in the statement, using an alternative acronym for the Islamic State group.
The spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition, U.S. Army Col. Steve Warren said on Tuesday that the coalition was able to “assess that he is dead” and that it “got the word Monday morning.”
Warren described al-Shishani as a “very important figure,” in the Islamic State group, who was hit as part of a stepped-up campaign of U.S.-led airstrikes targeting ISIS leadership.
Last week, Waren told reporters that the airstrike that targeted al-Shishani was part of a series of stepped-up coalition strikes targeting ISIS leadership.
Al-Shishani was in the area of Shaddadeh “along with about a dozen other fighters who were in one spot … and we struck it,” Warren said at the time.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
Abouttime says
And presumably Obama is planning on going to his funeral?
Fred Albumin says
I understand that Obama is sending Michelle in his place…
jerry says
Yes, I believe this is correct. I also heard that Obama will attend and I also heard that his former Pastor; Jeremiah Wright of the Chicago Trinity Church is suppose to preside and give the eulogy, too!
fred a. lawing says
The tail does wag the dog, but to make it change direction, eliminate the head that leads.
Justin W says
I’m glad to hear the good news that another ISIS leader has been killed. This brutal movement is intent on destroying civilization. Their deaths are cause for celebration. Hopefully our military will continue to be successful in wiping out the ISIS movement.
Charles A says
YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
jerry says
Should we send some flowers? I’m thinking the least we could do might be to send a few Lilies whenever our US military folks take down one of those ISIS bastards!
Robert Early says
Great ! Now, if we could just erase our own resident evil.
rodney says
no one has the balls. All those who should refuse to. What a bunch of pussies as Ralph Edwards says. jail would be a good place. preferably Ft. meade or quantico where the marines can work him over 24/7.
DWB says
Sounds good to me.
Bill Kay says
How sweet it would be !
Charles A says
We got the head of the snake and now its time to take the rest of that same snake down to the pits of hell.
Zinka says
Good news! Congratulations US. Army.
God Bless troops American. Good job and good luck,and continue to kill more criminal ISIS. Islamic state.
Jim Evans says
It doesn’t really matter how many top commanders that are killed a someone else will just take their place. I think the U.S. needs to do carpet bombing like they did in Vietnam.
rodney says
I think they need to neutron bomb. Destroy all the people and leave the buildings in tact, if I understand it right. We are at WAR people, there will be civilian casualties, get USED to it.
Bill Kay says
You must have been reading my mind , one or two don’t get it I want to see thousands where are the B-52`s , c-130 gun ships ect , guess we will have to wait until we get a winner to lead .
jerry says
No not carpet bombing – this is no fun at all! The ISIS clowns deserve much worse than that for their end! The best would be napalm like we used in Vietnam but I would prefer to see them drop the MOAB / Fuel air bombs
on them. Our military people refer to the MOAB as the “MOTHER OF ALL BOMBS” and when it’s dropped on a particular target it falls to a designated height and then first of two explosions releases the fuel which spreads over a very huge area above the target and then after the fuel spreads above the target a second explosion ignites the fuel and everything underneath is exposed to an inferno! The victims in the target area are reduced to so much ash because they’re caught under something similar to an intense oven broiler and then it’s bye, bye ISIS babies!
Steve says
The middle east would make a nice giant mirror..
Lee says
The head that leads is Obummer
Constitutionalist says
What some may be failing to recall is that D’OweBama and his lapdog McCain are BOTH on record and on video describing “our friends” in ISIS, and they ordered training, firearms(prob. incl. rocket and grenade launchers), ammo, vehicles, and money given to them.
i suspect that this Chechen leader was taken out to prevent him testifying as to how much US aid made it possible for him and his buddies to go on a slaughtering spree.
Isn’t anyone finding it the slightest degree strange that D’OweBama would first order aid and comfort to ISIS/ISIL, then do his best to kill them off? Anyone else notice that none of the attacks on ISIS/ISIL took place until the Russians showed up and kicked more ass in 3 days than the US had in 3-4 YEARS?
armydadtexas says
Well that is one LESS blood thirsty, satanic, ISLAMO-FASCIST.
Merril says
Take care of all the terrorist and if the leader is Obama, get him also!!!
Mister Vollmer says
He went to a better place.