10:28, 12 October 2015

IRNA: Tarkhan Batirashvili killed in Iraq

Airstrike against the ISIL terrorist group objects. Photo: http://function.mil.ru/news_page/country/more.htm?id=12060572@egNews

Tarkhan Batirashvili (Umar ash-Shishani), a field commander of the "Islamic State" (IS), declared a terrorist organization, was killed in the air attack of the Iraqi Air Force. This was reported by Iranian news agency "IRNA".

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that the Internet repeatedly posted reports on the killing of Tarkhan Batirashvili. Recently, the information about his death was disseminated by the agency "Alforat" on May 2. However, the information was not then confirmed by his cousin.

The former Georgian soldier, involved in the civil war in Syria, the commander of the northern sector of the "Islamic State" (IS), a battle grouping of radical Islamists, fighting in Iraq and Syria (until 2014, the "Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant", ISIL), became well-known in Syria under the name of Umar ash-Shishani (Omar al-Shishani, Omar of Chechnya, Chechen Omar).

During the air attack of the Iraqi Air Force, several closest associates of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the "Islamic State", were killed, and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi himself was wounded, the "IRNA" reports with reference to its source. According to the source, the number of the killed militants includes Omar al-Shishani, who was in charge for propaganda in the "Islamic State".

In total, eight top-ranking IS members were killed during the operation, the "Vedomosti" reports with reference to Reuters.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.