clear

Creating new perspectives since 2009

Pentagon: Senior Daesh leader killed in air strike in Tal Afar

September 24, 2015 at 8:52 am

The US Department of Defense announced Wednesday the killing of Abu Bakr Al-Turkmani, a senior Daesh leader in Iraq, as former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) David Petraeus called on his country to support Iraq’s government forces, tribes and Kurdish Peshmerga forces.

“Coalition forces conducted an airstrike resulting in the death of Abu Bakr al-Turkmani, an ISIL senior leader, on Sept. 10 near Tal Afar, Iraq. Abu Bakr al-Turkmani was an ISIL administrative emir,” the US Department of Defense stated in a press release.

“He was a legacy al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) jihadist before joining ISIL and was a close associate to multiple ISIL senior leaders in the Mosul and Tal Afar, Iraq, area. His death will disrupt ISIL operations in Tal Afar impacting the violent extremist freedom of maneuver in ISIL-controlled areas,” it added.

Former CIA Director David Petraeus urges the US administration to strengthen its support to the Iraqi forces in its war against ISIS. “In my judgment, increased support for the Iraqi security forces, Sunni tribal forces and Kurdish Peshmerga is needed, including embedding US adviser elements down to the brigade headquarters level of those Iraqi forces fighting ISIS,” he said in a testimony before the US Senate Armed Services Committee

In his first testimony before a congressional committee since his resignation Petraeus said on Tuesday that the US is not where it should be in its fight against ISIS at this point.

He recommended moving US military headquarters for combating the Islamic State from Kuwait to Baghdad so as to allow for more interaction between the top American commander and US ambassador to Iraq Stuart Jones.

The International Coalition aircraft has lately intensified air strikes on ISIS positions in Anbar and Nineveh provinces, which incurred significant losses among ISIS’s ranks, including senior leaders. US forces re preparing for Al-Anbar battle in cooperation with the Iraqi forces and tribes, while the Popular Crowd militias will not take part in the upcoming battle, having failed to achieve any significant progress on the ground, which prompted them to withdraw.