The Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights said on Thursday that Islamic State's
military commander was badly wounded but still alive, appearing to
contradict U.S. officials who said he was likely killed in a U.S. air
strike. The U.S.
officials said on Tuesday that Abu Omar al-Shishani, also known as Omar
the Chechen and described by the Pentagon as the group's "minister of
war", was targeted near the town of al-Shadadi in Syria. Observatory
director Rami Abdulrahman said he had been badly wounded but not killed
and had been moved to Islamic State's base of operations in Raqqa for
treatment. "He did not die," Abdulrahman said. The
Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says it gathers its information
from all sides in the conflict. Reuters had no way to independently
verify the report. Born in 1986 in
Georgia, which was then still part of the Soviet Union, the red-bearded
Shishani had a reputation as a close military adviser to Islamic State
leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who was said by followers to have relied
heavily on Shishani. The strike
itself involved multiple waves of manned and unmanned aircraft,
targeting Shishani near al-Shadadi in Syria, a U.S. official said. The Pentagon
believes Shishani was sent there to bolster Islamic State troops after
they suffered a series of setbacks at the hands of U.S.-allied Arab and
Kurdish forces on the ground. An
official in the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, which has been fighting
Islamic State in the al-Shadadi area, said on Tuesday it had received
information that Shishani was killed but had no details and had been
unable to confirm the death. The official declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter.
ISIS commander still alive, badly wounded: Syria Observatory

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