Senior ISIS figures targeted in separate attacks

The US has said that ISIS’ ‘war minister’ may have been killed in an air strike. Chechen Tarkhan Tayumurazovich Batirashvili was targeted during a strike near the town of Shaddadi (Syria) on 4 March. If his demise can be confirmed, this marks one of the most high-profile ISIS deaths to date. The Pentagon’s press secretary commented: “His potential removal from the battlefield would negatively impact Isil’s ability to recruit foreign fighters – especially those from Chechnya and the Caucasus regions – and degrade Isil’s ability to coordinate attacks and defence of its strongholds like Raqqa, Syria, and Mosul, Iraq.” Separately, following reports that US Special Forces had captured the head of an ISIS unit trying to develop chemical weapons, the US has now revealed that Sleiman Daud al-Afari was captured during a raid near the northern Iraqi town of Tal Afar in February. He has allegedly told officials that ISIS has weaponised mustard gas.

The US military has said it targeted a Chechen figure in the Islamic State command structure in an airstrike in Syria on 4 March.



While the Pentagon has yet to determine if it killed Tarkhan Tayumurazovich Batirashvili, it described him as an Isis war minister, making him one of the most senior figures the US has marked for death in the 18-month war.



“His potential removal from the battlefield would negatively impact Isil’s ability to recruit foreign fighters – especially those from Chechnya and the Caucasus regions – and degrade Isil’s ability to coordinate attacks and defense of its strongholds like Raqqa, Syria, and Mosul, Iraq,” said Peter Cook, the Pentagon’s press secretary, in a statement on Tuesday, using another acronym for Isis.

Batirashvili, said to be nicknamed “Omar the Chechen”, received designation for sanctions from the US Treasury Department in September 2014.

The Treasury Department described Batirashvili as possessing “unique authority” within Isis, stemming from his placement on its governing Shura council, his alleged operation of a prison near Raqqa where Isis held foreign captives, his military positions, and his coordination with Isis’s financial operations.



The Pentagon said that the airstrike took place near the town of Shaddadi, a former Isis stronghold that was captured in February by Kurdish forces. It was not possible to independently confirm the reported strike.

The announcement came on a day when the outgoing leader of US troops in the Middle East revealed that he was looking to modify and restart a failed effort to aid Syrian Arab militants against Isis.



Gen Lloyd Austin, an architect of the Isis war, told a Senate panel that he had requested permission to relaunch the training, scrapped last fall after Austin revealed that it had yielded fewer than half a dozen fighters despite a budget of nearly half a billion dollars.



Under the new approach Austin said he requested, fewer recruits would be accepted and “the training would be shorter, but, again, I think they’ll be able to greatly influence [their] forces”.



Austin indicated that US officials see their current reliance on Syrian Kurdish proxies as a challenge against the largely Arab Isis forces.

Although Austin is retiring – and his intended replacement, special operations chief Gen Joseph Votel, has yet to receive a Senate nomination hearing – Austin also suggested to the Senate armed services committee additional troops beyond the approximately 4,000 currently in Iraq and Syria might be appropriate. Central Command and Pentagon officials did not respond to a request for clarification.