Coalition removes ISIS leaders from battlefield

SOUTHWEST ASIA – Coalition airstrikes have removed senior ISIS military officials and planners from the battlefield.

The elimination of three senior foreign fighters represents a significant degradation of the ISIS planning and operational capability.

Mustafa Gunes, a Syria-based ISIS external operations facilitator from Turkey, was killed by a coalition airstrike near Mayadin, Syria, 27 April. He was identified as an ISIS recruiter in the central Turkish city of Konya. Gunes was linked to facilitating financial support for planning attacks outside Syria and Iraq against the West.

Abu Asim al-Jazaeri, an ISIS external operations planner and a Syria-based French-Algerian ISIS fighter, was killed by a Coalition airstrike near Mayadin, Syria, May 11. Al-Jazaeri was involved in training a new generation of ISIS youths, called the Cubs of the Caliphate, a high priority training program sanctioned by ISIS leadership.

Abu-Khattab al-Rawi, a senior ISIS military official, was killed during an operation near Al-Qaim in Iraq, 18 May. Al-Rawi was killed along with three other terrorists. Al-Rawi was an ISIS military official who operated in Iraq’s Al Anbar Province and provided direct support to ISIS leadership. Al-Rawi was responsible for coordinating UAV operations and procurement in Al Anbar Province in Iraq.

The deaths of these men eliminates senior foreign fighters, who had extensive experience and training, and degrades ISIS’s ability to plan and conduct attacks on civilian targets in Iraq and Syria, as well throughout the region and in the West.

The Coalition will continue to degrade, disrupt, and dismantle ISIS structure, as well as exert pressure on its senior leaders and associates across multiple networks throughout Iraq and Syria.