By Bronte Price, PoliticKING
The U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter announced on Friday that an Islamic State leader, who has been described as the militant group's finance minister has been killed.
"We are systematically eliminating ISIL's cabinet," Carter said during a news conference with Joint Chiefs Chairman Marine Gen. Joe Dunford on Fridaymorning at the Pentagon. "Indeed, the U.S. military killed several key ISIL terrorists this week, including, we believe, Hajji Iman, who was an ISIL leader — senior leader — serving as a finance minister and who was also responsible for some external affairs and plots."
Defense Secretary Ash Carter announces the death of ISIS's No. 2 leader, again https://t.co/eleiIpWBT6pic.twitter.com/2XG4z40Zmf
— The Atlantic (@TheAtlantic) March 25, 2016
The Defense Secretary did not say exactly how or where al-Qaduli was killed. "This is the second senior ISIL leader we've successfully targeted this month, after confirming the death of ISIL's so-called minister of war [Omar al-Shishani] a short time ago," Carter said.
The ISIS militant was most commonly known as Abd al-Rahman Mustafa al-Qaduli but also had numerous other aliases, according to NPR.
Carter said that this is part of a larger effort to target the financial infrastructure of the group. ISIS has been losing ground in Syria and Iraq recently after a military push recently began with targeting the Islamic State's cash storage sites. "Now, we've taken out the leader who oversees all the funding for ISIL's operation, hurting their ability to pay fighters and hire recruits."
"We are systematically eliminating IS's cabinet" says US Secretary of Defense Ash Carter https://t.co/vbfOlqzADshttps://t.co/RCLqPy2lVK
— BBC Breaking News (@BBCBreaking) March 25, 2016
When asked by a reporter Friday about whether al-Qaduli and other leaders who were recently killed will just be replaced, Carter said, "Striking leadership is necessary but ... far from sufficient. Leaders can be replaced. However, these leaders have been around for a long time, they are senior, they're experienced, and so eliminating them is an important objective and achieves an important result.” He added, "But they will be replaced, and we'll continue to go after their leadership and other aspects of their capabilities."
Watch as Journalist Michael Ware, who covered the Iraq war for 'Time' & CNN, tells Larry about going inside the militant groups who targeted US forces & the day he witnessed ISIS' birth:
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