Senior IS leader killed in airstrike: Iraqi intelligence

Baghdad: Iraqi intelligence networks on Saturday said one of the Islamic State's highest-ranking leaders has been killed in an airstrike near the border with Syria.

Known as IS' number two, Ayad Hamid Khalaf al-Jumaili was killed in the town of al-Qaim in Anbar province, located on Iraq's border with Syria, Efe news service quoted Iraqi intelligence as saying.

Al-Jumaili was dubbed the IS minister of war.

The Iraqi authorities pointed out that the bombing also claimed the lives of IS military leader in al-Qaim, Turki Jamal al-Dulimi, known as Abu Hajar, and Salem Muzfer al-Ajami, an IS administrative official in that town.

The intelligence added that the aviation directed "a precise blow" against a position of IS leaders in that Iraqi town.

However, the intelligence gave no further details regarding the time of the attack or whether it was carried out by aircraft of Iraqi air forces or the US-led international coalition.

IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi talked to his supporters one month ago through a written speech distributed in the Iraqi city of Mosul, acknowledging the defeat of his forces against Iraqi government troops, according to military officials.

Mohamed Ibrahim al-Bayati, head of Security Council of Nineveh province, saids that IS prominent leaders move aimlessly on the borders between Iraq and Syria.

Iraqi forces, backed by the international coalition, launched a major offensive in Mosul to drive IS extremists out their main stronghold, where al-Baghdadi proclaimed the caliphate on June 29, 2014.