The head of Russia's Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, says one of the leaders of the Islamic State, Tarkhan Batirashvili, has been killed.
Kadyrov wrote on Instagram on November 13 that "it will happen to anyone who threatens Russia and the Chechen nation."
Kadyrov's statement did not offer any details, and there was no confirmation of Batirashvili's death from other sources.
Batirashvili, known in the Middle East as Umar al-Shishani, is an ethnic Chechen from Georgia's Pankisi region.
In September, the United States placed Batirashvili on a list of individuals it accuses of working with extremist organizations to provide financial and material support to terrorist fighters in Syria.
Batirashvili held "top military positions" within Islamic State and led "a number of attacks" over the past several years, the U.S. Treasury Department's statement said then.
In the past, Kadyrov's statements about deaths of Islamic insurgency leaders in the North Caucasus turned out to be wrong.
