Adios, Adnani.
Did the U.S. Kill ISIS Leader?
BY PAUL MCLEARY, ADAM RAWNSLEYAUGUST 31, 2016 - 7:50
A terrorist leader is dead. Does it matter? The Islamic State announced Tuesday that the head of its external operations and propaganda wing, Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, was killed near Aleppo, Syria, on Tuesday. The Pentagon has confirmed that it launched a strike targeting him near the town of al Bab, though they’re not confirming his death just yet.
It’s unclear what the loss of Adnani would mean for ISIS, a group already on its heels in Iraq and Syria. If the past 15 years of war in Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, and Syria have taught us anything, it’s that taking out terrorist leaders rarely cripples large terrorist organizations. But Adnani would rank as the highest ISIS leader to be killed by an airstrike, and has been a critical voice and leader for the group. He was the first to declare a caliphate for ISIS in June 2014, and has personally overseen plans to hit targets in Europe while encouraging followers to attack non-Muslims around the globe, as a series of illuminating New York Times exclusives from Rukmini Callimachi have shown us over the past several months.
Like ISIS leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, Adnani was in U.S. custody in Iraq from 2005 until 2010, when he was released and fled to Syria, where he again signed up with the group that would become ISIS.
BY PAUL MCLEARY, ADAM RAWNSLEYAUGUST 31, 2016 - 7:50
A terrorist leader is dead. Does it matter? The Islamic State announced Tuesday that the head of its external operations and propaganda wing, Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, was killed near Aleppo, Syria, on Tuesday. The Pentagon has confirmed that it launched a strike targeting him near the town of al Bab, though they’re not confirming his death just yet.
It’s unclear what the loss of Adnani would mean for ISIS, a group already on its heels in Iraq and Syria. If the past 15 years of war in Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, and Syria have taught us anything, it’s that taking out terrorist leaders rarely cripples large terrorist organizations. But Adnani would rank as the highest ISIS leader to be killed by an airstrike, and has been a critical voice and leader for the group. He was the first to declare a caliphate for ISIS in June 2014, and has personally overseen plans to hit targets in Europe while encouraging followers to attack non-Muslims around the globe, as a series of illuminating New York Times exclusives from Rukmini Callimachi have shown us over the past several months.
Like ISIS leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, Adnani was in U.S. custody in Iraq from 2005 until 2010, when he was released and fled to Syria, where he again signed up with the group that would become ISIS.
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