White House: ISIL deputy leader killed in US air strike

This picture, circulated by Iraqi media, is widely believed to show al-Hayali, also known as Hajji Mutazz

The US government says it has confirmed that the deputy leader of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group was killed in a US military air strike in Iraq earlier this week.

White House spokesman Ned Price said on Friday that Fadhil Ahmad al-Hayali, also known as Hajji Mutazz, was travelling in a vehicle near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul when he was killed on Tuesday.

As the senior deputy to ISIL chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, al-Hayali was the primary coordinator for moving large amounts of weapons, explosives, vehicles and people between Iraq and Syria.

"Al-Hayali's death will adversely impact ISIL's operations given that his influence spanned ISIL's finance, media, operations, and logistics," Price said in a statement.

"He supported ISIL operations in both countries [Syria and Iraq] and was in charge of ISIL operations in Iraq, where he was instrumental in planning operations over the past two years, including the ISIL offensive in Mosul in June 2014."

Like many senior ISIL commanders, before joining the group, al-Hayali had been a member of al-Qaeda's Iraqi faction, the statement said.

Also killed in Tuesday's air strike was an ISIL media operative known as Abu Abdullah, Price said.

In December last year, General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, told the Wall Street Journal that three members of ISIL’s “senior leadership” had been killed. Following these remarks, it was widely reported that al-Hayali was among the dead.

Asked about these reports on Friday, Dempsey’s press office told Al Jazeera he had only referred to “senior leadership”, and that particular individuals had only been named by others, not Dempsey.

Source: Al Jazeera and agencies