Russia announced on Friday it has killed several top commanders of the ISIL Takfiri group in an airstrike in Syria, including the “Minister of War” and the so-called Emir of Deir Ezzor.
“As a result of a precision airstrike of the Russian air forces in the vicinity of Deir Ezzor city, a command post, communication center and some 40 ISIL militants have been killed,” the Russian defense ministry said in a statement posted on Facebook.
“According to confirmed data, among the killed fighters are four influential field commanders including Deir Ezzor emir Abu Mohammed al-Shimali,” the ministry said.
Gulmurod Khalimov, who is known as the ISIL group’s Minister of War and the highest-ranking defector from ex-Soviet Tajikistan, suffered a “fatal injury,” it added.
Russia’s SU warplanes dropped “bunker buster” bombs on the militants as they were meeting near Deir Ezzor to discuss how to respond to the advance of the Syrian army, Moscow said.
Backed by Russia, Syrian troops on Tuesday broke through a years-long siege imposed by ISIL militants on tens of thousands of civilians in Deir Ezzor.
A former colonel, Khalimov headed the Tajik interior ministry’s special forces unit and received American training before joining ISIL in 2015.
Khalimov pledged allegiance to the terrorist group in a video released in May 2015 in a high-profile defection that rocked Tajikistan, a mainly Muslim country.
Source: AFP
