The head of ISIS’s States General Administration was killed in a recent suspected United States drone strike on the northwestern Syrian region of Greater Idlib, Anba Jassim, a blog that covers inner affairs of terrorist groups, revealed on March 2.
The news blog identified the slain senior ISIS official as Abu Sarah al-Iraqi, who is also known as “Abdul Raouf al-Muhajir” and “Kfoush”.
Abu Sarah was traveling with one of his guards, also an Iraqi national, on a road near the town of Kah in the northern Idlib countryside on February 24 when his motorcycle was targeted by a combat drone. The strike split the motorcycle in half and killed the two on the spot.
U.S. combat drones were spotted over Greater Idlib, which is ruled by al-Qaeda-affiliated Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), before and after the deadly strike. However, Washington is yet to confirm its responsibility.
Anba Jassim reported that Abu Sarah, whose real name is Ali Salman Jassim al-Jubouri, was responsible for ISIS states outside of Syria and Iraq.
According to the blog, ISIS attempted to hide the fate of the senior officer by promoting that the target of the drone strike was a leader of al-Qaeda-affiliated Horas al-Din known as Abu Obada al-Iraqi. This led to resentment among the members of the terrorist groups who felt they were being lied to.
The assassination of Abu Sarah was a major blow to ISIS as he used to play a key role in the terrorist group’s external operations.
ISIS maintains a strong influence in Greater Idlib, despite not controlling any area there. The U.S. killed several of the terrorist group’s senior officials, including leaders Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, in the region. However, it has been refraining from targeting HTS.
Source: South Front
