Syria Observatory: ISIL commander still alive, badly wounded

BEIRUT – Reuters

AFP Photo

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on March 10 that the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant’s (ISIL) military commander was badly wounded but still alive, appearing to contradict U.S. officials who said he was “likely killed” in a U.S. air strike. 

The U.S. officials said on March 8 that Abu Omar al-Shishani, also known as Omar the Chechen and described by the Pentagon as the group’s “minister of war,” was targeted near the town of al-Shadadi in Syria. 

Observatory director Rami Abdulrahman said he had been badly wounded but not killed and had been moved to ISIL base of operations in Raqqa for treatment. 

“He did not die,” Abdulrahman said. 

The Observatory says it gathers its information from all sides in the conflict. Reuters had no way to independently verify the report. 

Born in 1986 in Georgia, which was then still part of the Soviet Union, the red-bearded Shishani had a reputation as a close military adviser to ISIL leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who was said by followers to have relied heavily on Shishani. 

The strike itself involved multiple waves of manned and unmanned aircraft, targeting Shishani near al-Shadadi in Syria, a U.S. official said. 

The Pentagon believes Shishani was sent there to bolster ISIL troops after they suffered a series of setbacks at the hands of U.S.-allied Arab and Kurdish forces on the ground. 

An official in the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Unit (YPG) militia, which has been fighting ISIL in the al-Shadadi area, said on March 8 that it had received information that Shishani was killed but had no details and had been unable to confirm the death. 

The official declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter.