Senior ISIS commander killed after U.S. airstrike in Syria

(Image credit: Twitter.com/CNNPolitics)

published 15 March 2016

Omar al-Shishani, a senior Islamic State operative, was killed following a U.S. airstrike in Syria last week, two U.S. officials told CNN.

The U.S. State Department was offering a $5 million reward for al-Shishani, who was once a member of an elite Georgian military unit. An official said he joined ISIS in 2013, and was later in charge of a prison near Raqqa. Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said al-Shishani's death "would negatively impact" ISIS's "ability to recruit foreign fighters, especially those from Chechnya and the Caucus regions."

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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