The No. 2 leader of the Islamic State militant group was killed in a U.S. drone strike near Mosul, Iraq Tuesday, according to the White House.
The National Security Council identified the slain militant as Fadhil Ahmad al-Hayali, also known as Haji Mutaz, and said he was IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's senior deputy.
WPTV tweeted a copy of the statement from Ned Price, NSC spokesman.
US forces say they were able to kill him, along with an IS "media operative" known as Abu Abdullah, on August 18 in a strike on a vehicle near the city of Mosul.
The White House described Al-Hayali as a member of the Islamic State's ruling council, and "a primary coordinator for moving large amounts of weapons, explosives, vehicles and people between Iraq and Syria.
"He supported ISIL operations in both countries 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," it said.
“The United States and its coalition partners are determined to degrade and destroy this terrorist group which has wrought so much harm and suffering on the people of the region and beyond,” the statement said,
according to Fox News.
Like many senior Iraqi jihadists, before joining the IS group, Al-Hayali had been a member of Al-Qaeda's Iraqi faction.
The United States and its allies stage daily air strikes on Islamic State targets in the group's self-declared caliphate in Iraq and Syria. A drone strike last month killed a senior Islamic State leader in its Syrian stronghold of Raqqa.
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