Ayad al-Jumaili, believed to be ISIL's second-in-command after Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, has been killed in Iraqi air strikes near the Syrian border, Iraqi state TV reported.

Jumaili and two other commanders were reportedly killed in the al-Qaim region in the western Anbar province.

Brigadier general Yahya Rasool of Iraq's Joint Operation Command, citing military intelligence, said the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group's director of administrative affairs, Salem Mudafar al-Ajmi, was also killed in the raid.

The news comes as the Iraqi government continued its push to liberate more areas from ISIL control in Mosul.

More than 300 civilians have been killed in western Mosul since Iraqi forces and the US-led coalition began an offensive last month to push ISIL out of its last stronghold in Iraq, the UN said, adding that the toll could exceed 400 if new killings are verified.

"This is an enemy that ruthlessly exploits civilians to serve its own ends, and clearly has not even the faintest qualm about deliberately placing them in danger," UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein said in a statement.

"[ISIL's] strategy of using children, men and women to shield themselves from attack is cowardly and disgraceful. It breaches the most basic standards of human dignity and morality," he said.

Hundreds of thousands more civilians are still trapped inside west Mosul after Iraqi forces and the US-coalition recaptured the city's east from ISIL in January.

West Mosul is both smaller and more densely populated than the city's east, meaning this stage of the battle poses a greater danger to civilians than those that came before.</s>The ISIS deputy believed to be second-in-command to elusive leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has purportedly been killed, an Iraqi military spokesman said Saturday. Ayad al-Jumaili died in an airstrike conducted by the Iraqis that targeted a meeting of ISIS commanders in Al-Qa'im in the western Anbar province, said Brig.

Start the conversation, or Read more at Valley News Live.</s>Jumaili was killed with other Islamic State commanders in a strike carried out by the Iraqi air force in the region of al-Qaim, near the border with Syria. (Photo: AP)

Baghdad: Ayad al-Jumaili, believed to be the deputy of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, has been killed in an airstrike, Iraqi State TV said on Saturday, citing Iraqi military intelligence.

The US-led anti-Islamic State coalition said it was unable at the moment to confirm the report.

Iraqi TV said Jumaili was killed with other Islamic State commanders in a strike carried out by the Iraqi air force in the region of al-Qaim, near the border with Syria. It gave no detail or date for the raid.

“The air force’s planes executed with accuracy a strike on the headquarters of Daesh in al-Qaim ..resulting in the killing of Daesh’s second-in-command...Ayad al-Jumaili, alias Abu Yahya, the war minister,” said state TV, citing a statement from the directorate of military intelligence.

Iraqi forces, backed by a US-led coalition, have been battling since October to retake the city of Mosul, Islamic State’s stronghold in Iraq and the city where Baghdadi declared a caliphate nearly three years ago.

Tens of thousands of refugees have been fleeing the city to escape the fighting.

The US and Iraqi officials believe Baghdadi has left operational commanders with diehard followers to fight the battle of Mosul, and is now hiding out in the desert with senior commanders.

A separate battle is in preparation in Syria to drive Islamic State from its stronghold there, the city of Raqqa.

The Iraqi state TV report is the first by an official media to announce the death of Jumaili, who was an intelligence officer under Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi president toppled in the 2003 US-led invasion.

Jumaili led Islamic State’s top security agency in Iraq and Syria, known as Amniya, answering directly to Baghdadi, according to experts.</s>BAGHDAD — The ISIS deputy believed to be second-in-command to elusive leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has purportedly been killed, an Iraqi military spokesman said Saturday.

Ayad al-Jumaili died in an airstrike conducted by the Iraqis that targeted a meeting of ISIS commanders in Al-Qa'im in the western Anbar province, said Brig. Gen. Yahya Rasool of Iraq's Joint Operation Command. He cited military intelligence.

Rasool said ISIS' director of administrative affairs, Salem Mudafar Al-Ajmi, also known as Abu Khatab, was killed in the raid. No date was given for the operation.

Rasool also described Jumaili as ISIS' minister of war, but his ranking within the terror group is not officially known and ISIS has made no mention of him previously. He was also known as Abu Yayha, the Iraqis said.

U.S. military officials told NBC News they have not confirmed the Iraqi military's report.

Iraqi State TV first announced Jumaili's death in an on-screen news flash.

In September, the Pentagon said it had confirmed that a U.S. airstrike killed another ISIS second-in-command, Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, who also served as the group's main spokesman.

ISIS previously said al-Adnani died in an Aug. 30 strike in al-Bab in Syria's devastated Aleppo province.

Al-Adnani's death came less than six months after two other top ISIS officials — finance minister Haji Iman and No. 3 Omar al-Shishani — were also reportedly killed.</s>Islamic State (Isis) deputy Ayad al-Jumaili, said to be second-in-command to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was reportedly killed on Friday, (31 March), a spokesperson for Iraqi intelligence said on Saturday.

Jumaili was killed along with other Isis commanders in an air raid conducted by the Iraqi air force in al-Qaim in western Anbar province, near the border with Syria, Brigadier General Yahya Rasool of Iraq's Joint Operation Command said, citing military intelligence.

"The air force's planes executed with accuracy a strike on the headquarters of Daesh in al-Qaim...resulting in the killing of Daesh's second-in-command...Ayad al-Jumaili, alias Abu Yahya, the war minister," state TV said, quoting a statement from the military intelligence directorate.

Isis director of administrative affairs, Salem Mudfara al-Ajmi, also called Abu Khatab, was said to have been taken down in the strike, and no date of the operation was provided, NBC News reported.

The US-led coalition against Isis said it could not confirm the Iraqi military's information.

According to experts, Jumaili led the militant group's security agency in Syria and Iraq known as Amniya and he reported directly to Baghdadi.

Iraqi and US officials reportedly believe that Baghdadi left operational commanders to fight the battle for Mosul and he is hiding in the desert with senior commanders.

The Pentagon in September had confirmed that another Isis second-in-command, Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, was killed in a US air raid. Isis claimed earlier that al-Adnani was killed in an air strike in August in Syria's al-Bab.</s>The chief lieutenant of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed in an airstrike in Iraq's al-Anbar province near the Syrian border, Iraqi state television said Saturday.

The report said an Iraqi Air Force strike in far western Iraq had killed Ayad al-Jumaili and several other regional IS commanders. The report did not say when the attack occurred and offered no other details.

Officials of the U.S.-led anti-IS coalition had not confirmed the extremist's death by Saturday evening.

Citing a statement from Iraqi military intelligence officials, the report described Jumaili, also known as Abu Yahya, as the IS war minister. It said, "The air force's planes executed with accuracy a strike on the headquarters of Daesh [the Arabic acronym for the terror group] in al-Qaim."

Jumaili, who once served as an intelligence officer under former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, joined the Sunni insurgency after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, and analysts said he had since answered directly to Baghdadi.

U.S. and Iraqi intelligence officials have said they think Baghdadi has moved his base of operations about 300 kilometers to the northeast and is hiding in the desert outside Mosul.</s>Ayad al-Jumaili, believed to be a deputy of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was killed in an airstrike on Friday, an Iraqi intelligence spokesman said on Saturday.

 

 The U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria said it was unable at the moment to confirm the information that was reported earlier in the day by Iraqi state-run TV.
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Jumaili was killed with other ISIS commanders in a strike carried out by the Iraqi air force in the region of al-Qaim, near the border with Syria, a military intelligence spokesman told Reuters.

 

 "The air force's planes executed with accuracy a strike on the headquarters of Daesh in al-Qaim ... resulting in the killing of Daesh's second-in-command ... Ayad al-Jumaili, alias Abu Yahya, the war minister," state TV said earlier, citing a statement from the directorate of military intelligence.

Iraqi forces, backed by a U.S.-led coalition, have been battling to retake the city of Mosul, ISIS's stronghold in Iraq and the city where Baghdadi declared a caliphate nearly three years ago.

Nearly 290,000 people have fled the city to escape the fighting, according to the United Nations.

The Iraqi state TV report is the first by an official media to announce the death of Jumaili, who was an intelligence 

 officer under Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi president toppled in the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

Jumaili led ISIS's top security agency in Iraq and Syria, known as Amniya, answering directly to Baghdadi, according to experts.

Although the loss of Mosul would effectively end ISIS's territorial rule in Iraq, U.S. and Iraqi officials are preparing for the group to go underground and fight an insurgency like the one that followed the U.S.-led invasion.

The last official report about Baghdadi was from the Iraqi military on Feb. 13. Iraqi F-16s carried out a strike on a house 

 where he was thought to be meeting other commanders, in western Iraq, near the Syrian border, they said in a statement.

More than 40 leading members of the group have been killed in coalition airstrikes, according to experts. Baghdadi has not officially appointed a successor.
• Senior ISIS commander killed in U.S. strike, officials say</s>Deputy Islamic State leader Ayad al-Jumaili is believed to have been killed in an Iraqi air strike near the Syrian border, according to intelligence reports.

Isil's second-in-command was reported to have been killed with other Islamic State commanders in a strike carried out by the Iraqi air force in the region of al-Qaim, near the border with Syria, on Saturday, a military intelligence source said.

The US-led coalition said it was unable to immediately confirm reports of the death of al-Jumaili, believed to be the deputy of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.</s>BAGHDAD: Ayad al-Jumaili, the man believed to be the deputy of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, has been killed in an air strike, Iraqi State TV said on Saturday, citing Iraq's military intelligence.

Jumaili was killed with other Islamic State commanders in a strike carried out by the Iraqi air force in the region of al-Qaim, near the border with Syria, the channel said, without giving the date of the raid.

The TV described Jumaili as Islamic State's "second-in-command" and "war minister".

The spokesman of the U.S.-led anti-Islamic State coalition couldn't immediately be reached for comments.</s>ISIS's deputy leader has been killed in air strike in Iraq, it emerged today.

Ayad al-Jumaili, was wiped out by the country's air force along with other leaders of the terror group, in the region of al-Qaim, near the border with Syria.

Jumaili is believed to be second-in-command to leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

It's understood that Jumaili, from Fallujah, was the head of the terror group's internal security unit.

He was previously an intelligence officer in the Iraqi army until 2003.
An Iraqi airstrike near Al Qaim, Anbar province, Iraq, kills Ayad al-Jumaili, believed to be ISIL's second-in-command.