Four senior ISIS leaders were killed in last month’s U.S.-Iraqi military raid in western Iraq including the group’s top operations leader in Iraq and its chief bombmaker for whom the United States had offered a $5 million reward, the U.S. military said Friday.
The four ISIS leaders were among the 14 ISIS fighters killed in the Aug. 29 raid on four locations in western Iraq. Seven American service members who participated in the raid were injured.
The Pentagon seal in the Pentagon Briefing Room in Arlington, Va., on Sept. 1, 2021.
Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images, FILE
“This operation targeted ISIS leaders and served to disrupt and degrade ISIS’ ability to plan, organize, and conduct attacks against Iraqi civilians, as well as U.S. citizens, allies, and partners throughout the region and beyond,” the United States Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a statement on Friday.
“As part of the on-going post-raid assessment, CENTCOM can confirm that four ISIS leaders were killed including: Ahmad Hamid Husayn Abd-al-Jalil al-Ithawi, responsible for all operations in Iraq, Abu Hammam, responsible for overseeing all operations in Western Iraq, Abu-‘Ali al-Tunisi, responsible for overseeing technical development, and Shakir Abud Ahmad al-Issawi, responsible for overseeing military operations in Western Iraq,” it added.
Abu Ali al-Tunisi was described by the Rewards for Justice website as “the leader of manufacturing for ISIS in Iraq.”
“He has conducted training for ISIS members, including instruction on how to make explosives, suicide vests, and improvised explosive devices (IEDs). Al-Tunisi also provided advanced training on weapons development and the manufacturing of chemical weapons.”
CENTCOM had said earlier that some of the ISIS militants in the raid were armed with grenades and were wearing explosive suicide belts.