A senior Islamic State figure in Iraq has been targeted in a US-led commando raid, the Pentagon said Wednesday, as Kurdish officials claimed he had been killed. The assault late Sunday, the latest raid by US special operators on a mission to kill or capture IS leaders, occurred at an undisclosed location in northern Iraq and targeted Suleiman Abd Shabib al-Jabouri, Baghdad-based US military spokesman Colonel Steve Warren said. He worked as "one of ISIL's military emirs and an ISIL war council member," Warren told Pentagon reporters in a phone call, using an acronym for the IS group.
"Al-Jabouri's removal will degrade ISIL's leadership network and impact their ability to co-ordinate attacks and defend ISIL strongholds," he added. Warren declined to comment on whether Jabouri was killed, but in a statement to AFP on Wednesday the Kurdish regional security council said he died.