BAGHDAD (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 27th May, 2020) Mouataz al-Jabouri, an who heads militants associated with the Islamic State terrorist group (IS, banned in Russia) in Iraq, has been killed in an attack carried out by the US-led international coalition in northeastern Syria, a spokesman of the Iraqi Counter Terrorism Service (CTS) told Sputnik on Tuesday.
"Terrorist [Mouataz al-Jabouri] was killed as a result of an airstrike launched by the international coalition in the district of Deir ez-Zor, according to information and intelligence data provided by the Iraqi Counter Terrorism Service," Sabah al-Nouman said, adding that al-Jabouri had been spied on by the CTS for a long time.
Al-Jabouri was the so-called Iraq governor within the IS terrorist group system, the spokesman added, noting that he was the main assistant of the IS leader for "state affairs," and was also responsible for "planning all terrorist external operations."
Earlier in the day, the state-owned Iraqi news Agency (INA) reported that al-Jabouri was eliminated in the course of an intelligence operation by the CTS.
On May 20, the INA reported that the country's National Intelligence Service had detained Abdullah Qardash, one of the IS' senior leaders and a possible successor to Abu Bakr Baghdadi, who has been killed. Following his arrest, the service said on Thursday that Qardash was in charge of manufacturing chemical weapons to attack Iraqi troops.
On Friday, al-Nouman told Sputnik that Qardash's arrest would help find the group's funding resources and details on its further plans. According to the spokesman, Qardash was detained while staying in Syria as a result of the high-level of coordination between the Iraqi intelligence services and the US-led coalition, which is fighting against the terrorist organization in the middle East.
In January, The Guardian newspaper reported, citing intelligence sources, that Abdullah Qardash is the nom de guerre of IS founding member Amir Mohammed Abdul Rahman al-Mawli al-Salbi, who was appointed as the new IS leader in October 2019, several hours after Baghdadi was killed.
Baghdadi is claimed to have been killed as a result of a special operation by US Navy Seals in Syria's rebel-held province of Idlib.
