According to the American army, Maher al-Agal was notably responsible for developing IS networks outside of Iraq and Syria.
Le Monde with after , AFP and Reuters
There is little information about him, but he is presented as “one of the five highest leaders” in the Islamic State (IS). Maher al-Agal, the head of the EI group in Syria, was killed Tuesday July 12 in an American drone strike in the northwest of the country, announced the central command of the Pentagon (Centcom) in a press release.
u.s. Central command forces conductive in uas strike outside jindayris, Northwest Syria Targeting Two Senior Isis Off… https://t.co/ax3pklyeu4
Maher al-Agal was killed while driving on a motorcycle near the city of Jandairis, in northwestern Syria, and his closest advisor was “seriously injured”, said the Centcom in a statement. The pentagon claims that there have been no civilian victims, even if the information is not verified.
Maher al-Agal was “responsible for aggressively pursering the development of IS networks outside Iraq and Syria”, and “the elimination of these IS leaders will disrupt the capacities of the ‘Terrorist organization to prepare and perpetrate attacks around the world, “said Centcom spokesperson, Colonel Joe Buccino.
The IS rejected by two successive offensives
The Syrian Observatory of Human Rights (OSDH), an NGO with a large network of sources in Syria, confirmed the death of Maher al-Agal, presented by the OSDH as “the governor for The raising “of the jihadist organization, in a drone strike. Syrian democratic forces, an alliance of Kurdish and Arab combatants supported by Washington, have announced that a person had been killed and another injured in an air strike targeting a motorcycle in the Aleppo region, without identifying the victims.
After a dazzling rise in power, in 2014, in Iraq and in neighboring Syria and the conquest of vast territories, IS saw its “caliphate” self -proclaimed to be overthrown under the blow of successive offensives in these two countries, respectively in 2017 and 2019.
In February, the American president, Joe Biden, announced the death of the former IS leader, Abou Ibrahim al-Hachimi al-Qourachi, who exploded during an operation of the forces American specials in northwest Syria, region under the control of jihadists. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, head and founder of the Islamic State organization had been killed in October 2019, in a raid of American special forces.