The deputy leader of the Islamic State terrorist group has been killed in a US air strike in Iraq.
The White House announced today that Fadhil Ahmad al-Hayali, also known as Hajji Mutazz, was killed while travelling in a vehicle near Mosul on Tuesday, August 18.
Al-Hayali was said to have been travelling alongside an ISIL media operative known as Abu Abdullah when the air strike occurred.
A spokesman for the White House confirmed the death this evening and said: "Al-Hayali's death will adversely impact ISIL's operations given that his influence spanned ISIL's finance, media, operations, and logistics."
The second-in-command was a “primary co-ordinator” for moving weapons, explosives, vehicles and people between Iraq and Syria, the White House said.
Al-Hayali was in charge of operations in Iraq and helped plan the group’s offensive in Mosul in June last year.
The United States and its allies stage daily air strikes on Islamic State targets in the terrorist group’s self-declared caliphate in Iraq and Syria, with a drone strike last month killing a senior Islamic State leader in Raqqa, Syria.
