Abu Mohammad al-Adnani

Abu Mohammad al-Adnani , maiden name Taha Sobhi Falaha  /طه صبحي فلاحة / Ṭāhā Ṣubḥī Fallāḥa , ( Arabic أبو محمد العدناني, DMG Abū Muḥammad al-ʿAdnānī ; born 1977 in Idlib ; died around August 30, 2016 ) was a high-ranking Syrian founding member of the terrorist organization Islamic State (IS). He was considered the head of the IS secret service, spokesman and head of propaganda and until his death in August 2016 as one of the last surviving founding members. Both the United States and Russia initially claimed his killing for themselves.

Shortly after the US invasion in 2003 , he went to Iraq and vowed the local al-Qaeda boss Abu Musab al-Zarqawi loyalty. Al-Qaeda terrorized the US occupation forces and civilians, especially Shiites in Iraq . Like Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and other leading terrorists, he was imprisoned at Camp Bucca in Iraq. Zarqawi was killed by the Americans in 2006, but his al-Qaeda in Iraq became the forerunner of IS. The organization once seemed defeated, fell out with the al-Qaeda leadership, reorganized itself and founded its “caliphate” in the Syrian-Iraqi power vacuum. It was Al-Adnani who proclaimed the "Caliphate of the Islamic State" in an audio message in the summer of 2014 and declared Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi to be the " Caliph ". Alongside al-Baghdadi, he was one of the few ISIS representatives who appeared publicly in the media. Al-Adnani regularly published audio messages and called on IS supporters around the world to carry out attacks. He was considered to be the head of an international network of various IS intelligence units, including the “Amni” intelligence unit, an “intelligence service for European affairs”, responsible, among other things, for terrorism outside Syria. Two of his most important helpers were Abu Souleymane al-Faransi, a French probably of Tunisian or Moroccan descent, and the Syrian Abu Ahmad. From 2016 onwards, he steered the IS strategy towards having attacks carried out by so-called " lone wolves ", ie individual perpetrators without a large network, on civilians, particularly in the USA and Europe. Before Ramadan 2016, he launched a bloody month of fasting. Numerous attacks worldwide followed his appeal.

IS reports referred to Adnani as "Kureishi", a descendant of the Quraish tribe from which the Prophet Mohammed came. Observers therefore suspected that al-Adnani should be built to succeed al-Baghdadi.

When exactly al-Adnani died was initially unclear. On August 30, 2016, the terrorist organization reported al-Adnani’s death through several information channels at the same time. The IS propaganda spokesman Amaq said that al-Adnani had become a " martyr " in Aleppo province while inspecting military operations. The United States Department of Defense reported that the US Air Force had killed al-Adnani in a "precision attack" near the northern Syrian city of al-Bab . But the Russian Defense Ministry rejected the Pentagon’s report and reported that a Russian Sukhoi Su-34 attacked IS positions near the Kurdish city of Maarat Umm Hawsh north of Aleppo and west of al-Bab, killing up to 40 terrorist fighters. The Russian Foreign Ministry announced: “On August 30, 2016, a Russian Su-34 bomber killed around 40 ISIS fighters in the Maarat Umm Hawsh area. According to several reports that have been verified by various secret service channels, commander Abu Mohammed al-Adnani, known as the 'official spokesman' for the international terrorist group Islamic State, is among the liquidated terrorists ”. At the request of the Syrian government, the Russian air force has been flying attacks against IS in Syria since September 2015. In the previous months, IS had had to give up around a fifth of the area in Syria and around half of the total area.

In November 2016, the Washington Post published a report that al-Adnani used electronic communication less and less to avoid air strikes, stayed in close proximity to civilians in al-Bab, avoided large meetings and only left his hiding place at night. Only when the terrorist organization came under increasing pressure from advancing enemies on the ground did he feel compelled to set out in person in a vehicle at the end of August that was destroyed by a Hellfire missile a short time later . The CIA is said to have spied on al-Adnani's travel plans and an MC-12 aircraft equipped with EMARSS reconnaissance technology is said to have been deployed over the site of the attack.

It is not yet clear whether Adnani was killed in the Russian or the US attack.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Angus McDowall, Phil Stewart: Key Islamic State leader killed in apparent US strike in Syria . Reuters , August 31, 2016, accessed September 1, 2016.
2. ↑ Syria: Russia claims to have killed IS propaganda chief , dpa report on Deutschlandfunk , August 31, 2016.
   Air attack: USA want IS spokespersons killed - but so do the Russians , Spiegel Online , August 31, 2016.
3. ^ Islamic State: Abu Muhammad al-Adnani 'killed in Aleppo'. BBC News , August 31, 2016, accessed August 31, 2016 . 
4. ↑ IS group unit known as 'Emni' aims to export terror around the world. France 24 , August 4, 2016, accessed September 1, 2016 . Rukmini Callimachiaug: How a Secretive Branch of ISIS Built a Global Network of Killers. The New York Times , August 3, 2016, accessed August 7, 2016 . 
    
5. ↑ ^{a b} Monika Bolliger: Architect of the terrorist attacks. ISIS leaders killed in Syria . Neue Zürcher Zeitung , August 31, 2016, accessed on September 1, 2016.
6. ↑ Anna Osius: Death in US attack in northern Syria: IS loses its propaganda chief Al Adnani. Tagesschau.de , August 31, 2016, accessed on August 31, 2016 . 
7. ^ Nahal Toosi, Bryan Bender: Pentagon says it targeted ISIL foreign ops chief . Politico , August 30, 2016, accessed September 1, 2016.
8. ^ IS speaker killed by Russian airstrike in Syria - defense ministry . TASS , August 31, 2016, accessed September 1, 2016.
9. ^ Joby Warrick: "ISIS's second-in-command hid in Syria for months. The day he stepped out, the US was waiting. " Washington Post, November 28, 2016
10. ↑ merkur.de:Russia or US coalition: Who killed IS spokesman Al-Adnani?