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US Kills ISIS Second-In-Command For 3rd Time In 2 Years
24
March, 2016
While
Russia and Iran are busy liberating whole cities from ISIS in Syria,
the US is sticking with the “one raid at a time” approach and it
apparently paid dividends on Thursday morning when
Abu Alaa Afri, also known as Abd al-Rahman Mustafa al-Qaduli and Haji
Imam was
killed in Syria.
US
Defense Secretary Ash Carter and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Joe
Dunford are set to make the announcement this morning at a press
conference and the Pentagon is thrilled. Al-Qaduli
had a $7 million bounty on his head, higher than Omar the
Chechen (who
was killed earlier this month) and Abu Mohammed al-Adnani who is
arguably more influential than Bakr himself.
A
physics teacher by trade, Mosul-born al-Qaduli was ISIS before ISIS
was ISIS. He
served as a deputy to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi (Islamic
State’s “godfather”) and was jailed
by the US in Iraq in 2012.
Upon his release, he joined ISIS and reportedly was Bin Laden’s
choice to lead the group after Abu
Omar al-Baghdadi and Abu
Ayyub al-Masri were killed in 2010. He was, however, passed over for
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, whose family can be loosely traced to the
Prophet.