BAGHDAD: Ayad al Jumaili, the man believed to be the deputy of IS leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, has been killed in an air strike, Iraqi State TV said on Saturday, citing Iraqi military intelligence. Jumaili was killed with other IS commanders in a strike carried out by the Iraqi air force in the region of Al Qaim, near the border with Syria, the channel said, without giving the date of the raid. The TV described Jumaili as IS’s “second-in-command” and “war minister”. The spokesman of the US-led anti-IS coalition could not immediately be reached for comment. Iraqi forces, backed by a US-led coalition, have been battling to retake the city of Mosul, IS’s stronghold in Iraq and the city where Baghdadi declared a caliphate nearly three years ago.
Tense of thousands of refugees have been fleeing the city to escape the fighting. It is unclear whether Baghdadi is still there. But US and Iraqi officials believe he has left operational commanders behind with diehard followers to fight the battle of Mosul, and is now hiding out in the desert A separate battle is in preparation in Syria to drive IS from its stronghold there, the city of Raqaa. Iraqi forces have launched an offensive in January to recapture several towns in the western province of Anbar, including Al Qaim, as part of its onslaught against IS militants in the country. — Reuters/DPA
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