Killing Islamic State senior member in coalition airstrike separates Baghdadi from west of Iraq

An expert on the extremist groups affairs has considered the airstrikes by the international coalition that killed Islamic State leader Abdullah al-Shemari as a devastating blow to the group.

In remarks to the Russian Sputnik news agency, Omar Badr Eddin, said Shemari is the leader of Jazira region. Losing him at such critical time of the group’s battle against the police and army in Iraq means difficulty to make up for him, which could create confusion among the group.

The group’s supreme leader, abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, whom is expected by many to be in one of the African countries, will not be able to communicate with an important part of the group in west of Iraq, where Shemari was leading the terrorist operations there, especially that he was killed, along with other leaders, the expert added.

The Iraqi Joint Operations Command, according to Badr Eddin, is currently making achievements through killing number of leaders and fighters in sporadic operations. He stressed necessity to resume those operations, saying that killing even one militant is a big loss to the group, as one member is now tasked with huge missions.

On Saturday, the Security Media Center said the U.S.-led Coalition managed to kill Shemari in an airstrike in Anbar.

Source: Iraqi News