A top propagandist for the Islamic State, responsible for crafting the terror group’s ultra-violent jihadi narrative online, was killed in a coalition airstrike in Syria.
The Pentagon confirmed Wa’il Adil Hasan Salman al-Fayad was killed in the strike near the group’s Syrian capital of Raqqa last Wednesday, according to a statement by Defense Department spokesman Peter Cook.
Mr. Cook declined to comment on whether it was an American aircraft that conducted the strike in the statement, released Friday. At the time of his death, al-Fayad was the Minister of Information for the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, ISIL and Daesh.
“Wa’il oversaw ISIL’s production of terrorist propaganda videos showing torture and executions [and] was a close associate of Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, the ISIL spokesman and leader for plotting and inspiring external terror attacks.
Al-Adnani was killed in an American airstrike in late August in the northern Syrian village of al-Bab, near Aleppo, where he was reportedly on a mission to raise morale for hard-pressed Islamic State fighters.
As the group’s top spokesman, al-Adnani was the public face of Islamic State’s worldwide propaganda campaign.
But both men were integral in cultivating the message of Islamic State’s so-called caliphate, distributing slickly produced, highly violent propaganda videos reinforcing the group’s global image across the Middle East and elsewhere.
That formidable propaganda campaign played a critical role in recruitment of jihadis to the Islamic State banner, as well as inspiring the group’s sympathizers to carry out “lone wolf” attacks against civilian targets in Europe and United States.
Their deaths come at a delicate time for the U.S.-led military coalition fighting Islamic State, as it prepares for a massive operation to retake the the Iraqi city of Mosul from ISIS control.
In May, U.S drones took out the so-called “emir” heading Islamic State operations in Iraq’s volatile Anbar province, as well as a number of the group’s top commanders.
Shaker Wahib al-Fahdawi al-Dulaimi, also known as Abu Waheeb, was traveling in the Iraqi city of Rutba when his convoy was struck by American aircraft, Defense Department officials said at the time.
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