The U.S. is challenging Russia’s claim that its airstrike killed ISIS’s official spokesman in Syria, with one American official calling the idea “a joke.”
Abu Mohammed al-Adnani was killed while surveying operations near Aleppo in the northwest of the war-torn country, his terrorist group’s news agency Amaq said Tuesday.
The top ISIS strategist, believed to be the force behind lone wolf attacks in the West, had been targeted in an airstrike in the Aleppo province town of Al Bab, the Pentagon said in a statement Tuesday evening.
However, Russia has been assisting the Syrian government’s military in the region, where different stretches of land are controlled by a hodgepodge of forces including the regime of Bashar Assad, ISIS, Kurdish militias and U.S.-backed rebels.
Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said U.S. authorities are still reviewing the results of its airstrike against Adnani, but the Russian Defense Ministry has already claimed responsibility for his death and said it occurred just west of Al Bab.
“On August 30, 2016, the strike of a Russian bomber #Su34 carried out near the Maaratat-Um-Haush (#Aleppo province) has eliminated a large concentration of #ISIS militants (up to 40 people),” the ministry said on its Facebook page..
“Among those terrorists, according to the information confirmed through several intelligence channels, there was the military leader Abu Mohammad al-Adnani known as the Spokesperson of the international terrorist organization the ‘Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant’.”
| Abu Mohammed al-Adnani, a top commander in the Islamic State, was confirmed dead by the terrorist group. |
However, U.S. officials have cast doubt on the idea that its former Cold War adversary had struck an important blow against ISIS by killing a top commander viewed as a possible successor to leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
“We assess those claims to be inaccurate,” Defense Department spokesman Matthew Allen told the Daily News on Wednesday.
“Russia’s claim is a joke,” an anonymous U.S. official told Reuters.
Cook had previously said Russia’s strategy in Syria has not focused on attacking ISIS leadership.
Disagreement over the death of Adnani marks the latest point in conflict between an American-led coalition targeting ISIS and Russian forces working with the Assad regime.
One of the most tense moments came when NATO ally Turkey shot down a Russian jet along its border with Syria, prompting calls for greater communication between those fighting the Islamic State.
Russia and the U.S. have not coordinated their attacks, though meetings between Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov have floated the idea.