Another blow: IS number two killed in US air strike

Hajji Mutazz’s death in Mosul expected to adversely impact IS operations

WASHINGTON: The second-in-command of the Islamic State militant group was killed during a US air strike in Iraq on Tuesday, the White House said on Friday.

"Fadhil Ahmad al-Hayali, also known as Hajji Mutazz was killed in a US  military air strike on August 18 while traveling in a vehicle near Mosul, Iraq, along with an ISIL media operative known as Abu Abdullah," White House spokesman Ned Price said in a statement. "His death will adversely impact ISIL's operations given that his influence spanned ISIL's finance, media, operations, and logistics," Price said.

The White House said the dead leader was a "primary coordinator" for moving weapons, explosives, vehicles, and people between Iraq and Syria. He was in charge of operations in Iraq and was responsible for the group's offensive in Mosul in June of last year.

Mutazz was a lieutenant colonel in the army of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. He later became a key IS leader. He was detained by US troops in Iraq at the Camp Bucca detention facility, said Harleen Gambhir, a counterterrorism analyst at the Institute for the Study of War. He probably joined al Qaeda after leaving Camp Bucca, she added.

One counter-terrorism specialist cautioned that the impact of the killing on IS could be short-lived.

"My experience studying the IS suggests a demonstrated ability to move people up into positions," said Seth Jones, a former Pentagon official now at the Rand Corporation.

A US official acknowledged that, but said the death was damaging to the group's reputation. "The death of Mutazz removes a key figure from ISIL. It further pierces the group's veneer of invincibility that it has sought to cast," he said. 

Published in The Express Tribune, August 23^rd, 2015.