Kurdistan Security Council announces death of senior IS member in Mosul

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) – The Kurdistan Region Security Council (KRSC) announced the death of an Islamic State (IS) senior leader in a targeted coalition airstrike in Mosul.

The KRSC released a statement on Tuesday reporting the death of a top IS leader in Mosul, Omar Mahdi Ahmad Zaidan, in an airstrike carried out by the US-led anti-IS global coalition.

According to the KRSC's statement, “Zaidan, the Jordanian national known by his nom de guerre Abu Monzer Al-Urdoni, was chief of IS' Department (Diwan) of Education. He was killed two days ago.”

Targeted coalition airstrikes by the KRSC’s Counter-Terror Department’s intelligence killed several senior IS members this year, the statement concluded.

In mid-April, The Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) revealed on its official Facebook account that coalition warplanes targeted a jihadist base in the village of Markab al-Ter located in the town of Baaj.

The air strikes allegedly killed 12 IS members, including two senior IS security leaders, according to Kurdistan's CTD.

Kurdish security also revealed the identity of the two leaders: Ali Khalaf, a Syrian citizen from Abu Kamal and Ismael Younis al-Afari, an Iraqi citizen from Tal Afar, west of Mosul.

Editing by G.H. Renaud