The Pentagon says that a top Islamic State (IS) commander believed to have been killed earlier this year was likely at an IS meeting near Mosul, Iraq, that was hit by an air strike over the weekend.
Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said on July 14 that the United States is still working to confirm whether Omar al-Shishani was killed in the latest strike on July 10 as he met with 16 other IS leaders.
Despite having proclaimed in March that the red-bearded Russian nicknamed "Omar the Chechen" was believed dead from wounds sustained in an air strike at that time, Cook said the United States got indications very recently that he was not in fact dead, and that he would be at the July 10 meeting.
The military then targeted him again in another strike, Cook said, and this time appears to have been successful. IS announced on July 13 that Shishani had been killed in battle in Iraq.
The Pentagon viewed Shishani as IS's "minister of war," and had placed a $5 million bounty on his head.
