ISIS deputy leader 'killed in air strike'

The second-in-command of Islamic State (ISIS) has been killed in a US-led coalition air strike in northern Iraq, the Iraqi ministry of defence said yesterday.

Abdul Rahman Mustafa Mohammed, also known as Abu Alaa al-Afari, was at a mosque near Tal Afar that was targeted, spokesman Brig-Gen Tahsin Ibrahim said.

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There was no immediate confirmation from the US military or on ISIS media.

In recent weeks, there were unconfirmed reports that Afari had taken temporary charge of ISIS operations. Iraqi sources claimed IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi had been incapacitated as a result of an air strike in Iraq in March.

Gen Ibrahim told the BBC that Afari was killed alongside dozens of militants who he had been meeting at the al-Shuhada (Martyrs) mosque in the village of al-Ayiadiya, near Tal Afar, where he was reportedly a well-known preacher.

Tal Afar, in the northern province of Nineveh, was seized by ISIS in June 2014.

The general did not specify which country carried out the air strike, but the US has been responsible for the vast majority since the coalition campaign began last August.

The ministry of defence separately published video purportedly showing the strike.

The Governor of Nineveh, Atheel al-Nujaifi, told the BBC in Washington that his contacts had confirmed Afari's death and that the air strike took place on Monday.

The Iraqi government has previously announced the deaths of IS leaders only for them to resurface alive.