Coalition forces killed a senior leader of the Islamic State group in an air strike in Iraq, the Pentagon said on September 22.
Abu Bakr al-Turkmani, who died September 10 in a strike in Tal Afar in northern Iraq, was a "slave facilitator" who had been involved in the sexual trafficking of Yazidi minority women, a U.S. defense official told AFP.
Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook called Turkmani an "administrative emir" and "close associate" of IS leaders in Iraq and said he was part of Al-Qaeda in Iraq before joining IS.
The Yazidis, a religious minority which lives mainly in Iraq's northern Sinjar region, are neither Muslims nor Arabs and follow a unique faith. They are considered infidels by the militants.
In 2014, IS massacred Yazidis, forced tens of thousands of them to flee, captured thousands of girls and women as spoils of war, and used them as sex slaves.
The United Nations has said the atrocities committed against the small community may amount to genocide.