The Obama administration says the No. 2 leader of the Islamic State militant group is dead, killed in a US military airstrike in Iraq earlier this week.
National Security Council spokesman Ned Price says Fadhil Ahmad al-Hayali was traveling in a vehicle near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul when he was killed Tuesday.
As the senior deputy to Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, al-Hayali was the primary coordinator for moving large amounts of weapons, explosives, vehicles and people between Iraq and Syria.
Price characterized al-Hayali’s death as a blow to Islamic State operations because his influence spanned finance, media, operations and logistics for the group.
Also killed in the airstrike was an Islamic State media operative known as Abu Abdullah.
