Slain IS spokesman was powerful leader

Associated Press

BEIRUT

With the killing of Abu Mohammed al-Adnani, the Islamic State group lost one of its most powerful figures, a militant with multiple roles: A propaganda chief, overseer of spectacular attacks in Europe and a trusted lieutenant of the group’s top leader.

Al-Adnani was the mastermind of the extremist group’s strategy of lashing out abroad with attacks that overshadowed its battlefield losses in Syria and Iraq. He formed militant cells in Europe to carry out organized attacks and inspired “lone wolves” who struck out on their own.

Coming on the heels of the death of the group’s war minister, al-Adnani’s loss is likely to prompt a shake-up in the IS leadership and may force its shadowy leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, to address the loss of its most charismatic figure.

“Only al-Baghdadi is a more important leader, and al-Adnani was probably positioned to succeed al-Baghdadi if he was killed,” Thomas Joscelyn, a researcher with the U.S.-based Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, said in an email to The Associated Press.

In a statement announcing his death, IS described al-Adnani as a descendent of Prophet Muhammad’s family and tribe, attributes also used to describe al-Baghdadi.

Still, both the Islamic State group – and its forerunner, al-Qaida in Iraq – have overcome past leadership losses, said Joscelyn, editor of the Long War Journal.

News of al-Adnani’s death sparked conflicting claims from Washington and Moscow over who targeted him. Russia said Wednesday it killed him along with 40 other militants in a strike in the northwestern Syrian city of Aleppo.

Washington said al-Adnani was targeted by a U.S. airstrike on the nearby city of al-Bab, though U.S. officials were still confirming his death.

Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said Wednesday that Washington had no information “to support Russia’s claim.”