A key ISIS leader known as known as ‘‘ has reportedly been killed in a US-led coalition airstrike in Iraq, reports the Mirror.
The high profile figure was killed in Iraq’s Anbar province alongside three other militants, the Pentagon has confirmed.
Abu Wahib – a chief military official in Anbar and former Al Qaeda member – was killed in the targeted airstrike on Friday while travelling in a vehicle near the town of Rutba, Cook.
Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said: “On May 6, a coalition air strike targeted Abu Wahib, ISIL’s military emir for Anbar province and a former member of Al-Qaeda in Iraq who has appeared in ISIL execution videos.”
Cook said Wahib’s death will affect Islamic State’s ability to conduct operations in the western province.
He added: “ISIS leadership has been hit hard by coalition efforts and this is another example of that.
“It is dangerous to be an ISIS leader in Iraq and Syria these days, and for good reason.”
The brutal executioner, also known as Shaker Wahib, gained notoriety after a haunting video of him slaughtering three truck drivers emerged online in 2013.
The three Syrian Alawite truck drivers were stopped along the Syrian/Anbar province border and he began to question them about religion.
He then decided the trio were bad Muslims and made them kneel down – shooting them one by one.
Islamic State, a hardline Sunni Islamist group, seized large portions of Anbar province in 2014, but Iraqi security forces have begun to win back some towns in the country, including Ramadi and Hit.
The American military and allies have been conducting airstrikes in Syria and Iraq since 2014 targeting Islamic State leaders and infrastructure in an effort to defeat the group.
However, despite US-led air strikes succeeding in taking out Islamic State members and some important leaders, the group is far from defeated.
