Iraq's Defense Ministry said on Wednesday that the deputy commander of the Islamic State group was killed in an airstrike in the north of the country, but the U.S. military denied coalition air forces had conducted such an attack. The ministry said Abu Alaa al-Afari was killed in a coalition attack on a mosque where he was meeting with other militants. However, U.S. Central Command strongly denied that a coalition airstrike had hit the mosque. Pentagon spokesman Col. Steve Warren said the U.S. could not independently confirm the reports that Afari had been targeted. More than 60 countries led by the United States launched a campaign last summer to "degrade and destroy" the ultra-radical Sunni Islamist group, which has seized large areas of Iraq and Syria. The coalition has been conducting airstrikes against Islamic State in both countries. Afari, whose real name is Abd Al-Rahman Mustafa al-Qaduli, is an ethnic Turkmen from the town of Tel Afar in northwestern Iraq, and is thought to be second in command of Islamic State under self-proclaimed Caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. The U.S. Treasury Department says Qaduli joined al-Qaida in Iraq in 2004 under the command of its slain leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and served as his deputy and the group's "emir," or senior leader in northern city of Mosul. The State Department, which is offering up to $7 million for Qaduli, said he was born in 1957 or 1959 in Mosul. Baghdadi was recently reported to have been incapacitated by an airstrike in the same region of Iraq, and Afari was tapped to assume leadership of the organization. The Pentagon has denied those reports as well, saying Baghdadi remains capable of directing operations and was not wounded in any raid. On its website, the Iraqi Defense Ministry posted footage of what is said showed the airstrike on the "Martyrs Mosque" in the village of al-Iyadhiya near Tel Afar, where Afari was a teacher and well-known preacher, according to a local official who requested anonymity. There was no way to independently confirm the Defense Ministry statement. The Iraqi government has previously announced the death of Islamic State militants only for them to resurface alive. Baghdad-based security analyst Hisham al-Hashimi, who closely tracks Islamic State, said Afari's death was not yet proven, but confirmed the airstrike had killed Abram al-Qurbash, who recently took charge of Islamic State security in the northern province of Nineveh.
Iraqi ministry says Islamic State leader killed; US denies any attack
Abu Alaa al-Afari, who is thought to be second in command of Islamic State under self-proclaimed caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, allegedly killed in coalition attack on mosque where he was meeting with other militants, Iraqi Defense Ministry says.
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