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US, Russia claim credit as Daesh spokesman killed in Syria  

By AFP
August 31, 2016

BEIRUT: Daesh group spokesman and top strategist Abu Mohamed al-Adnani has been killed in Syria, the group said, with both Washington and Moscow claiming credit.

Adnani was Daesh´s propaganda chief, top recruiter and the reported mastermind of a string of Daesh-claimed attacks in the West.

In Washington, the Pentagon said US-led coalition forces had targeted Adnani in an air strike in Syria´s Aleppo province on Tuesday but did not immediately confirm his death.

Russia´s military said one of its air strikes had killed Adnani in a bombing raid Tuesday that left up to 40 Daesh militants dead -- a claim dismissed by US officials as "a joke".

Regardless of who was responsible, analysts say his death will be a major bow to Daesh, which has suffered a series of setbacks this year including territorial losses in Syria and Iraq and the killings of other top figures.

Adnani was "the most viscerally aggressive ISIS leader in the public eye," said Charles Lister, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, using one of several names for Daesh.

"Without his explosive voice, Daesh may find it hard to inspire the intense levels of violence that it has managed to inspire of late."

Adnani, a Syrian born in 1977, was one of Daesh´s most recognised leaders, at the heart of a sophisticated propaganda and recruitment machine that produced slick videos and sustained a huge social media presence.

He was reported to have been involved in organising a series of high-profile Daesh attacks abroad that killed hundreds, including in Paris, Brussels and Istanbul.