Islamic State confirmed through its media outlet Wednesday that one of its top military commanders was killed fighting near the Iraqi city of Mosul.
(FOX)- The confirmation of Abu Umar al-Shishani’s death comes months after U.S. and Iraqi officials, as well as Syrian activists, said in March that he had died of wounds sustained in a U.S. airstrike in Syria.
The terror group’s Aamaq news agency reported that al-Shishani was “martyred” in the town of al-Shirqat, near Mosul, while helping to “halt the military campaign” against the ISIS-held city.
Islamic State supporters published eulogies to al-Shishani on social media and messaging networks, according to the Associated Press.
Aamaq had denied that al-Shishani was killed in March, without providing evidence that he was alive.
Al-Shishani, originally known as Tarkhan Tayumurazovich Batirashvili, was the ISIS equivalent of the Secretary of Defense. A senior U.S. defense official told Fox News back in March that he was killed near the Syrian town of Al Shadaddi, which was recaptured by the U.S.-backed Syria Democratic Forces.
An airstrike initially had injured him, but U.S. officials later said he died of his wounds.
A senior Iraqi intelligence official and the head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also confirmed Batirashvili’s death to the Associated Press.