Just weeks after ISIS suffered a major loss when its chief spokesman was killed in an air attack, the US quickly targeted his designated successor in a strike, but the outcome is not yet known.
A senior US official told CNN Friday that the US targeted ISIS leader Wael Adel Salman, aka Abu Muhammed Furqan, in a drone strike earlier this month.
Salman is considered by the US to be ISIS’ Minister of Information. The official said the US is still assessing whether the strike was a success.
An anti-ISIS group, Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently, told CNN’s Hamdi Alkhshali that Salman was killed in a drone strike on September 7 in Raqqa. The group said Salman was responsible for ISIS propaganda and had been chosen to succeed the previous Minister of Information, Mohammad al-Adnani, who was killed by a US drone strike in August.
Speaking in the United Kingdom last week, Secretary of Defense Ash Carter called al-Adnani “one of the most lethal leaders within ISIL, who was actively planning to kill our civilians around the world.”