A US drone strike has killed a top IS leader in charge of the extremist group’s foreign fighter operations and moving people and supplies into Syria and Iraq.
The Pentagon confirmed Thursday that Tariq bin Tahar-al-Awni-al-Harzi was killed in an airstrike in Syria on June 16, the day after his brother Ali was killed in another drone strike in Mosul, Iraq, AP reported. Harzi was not only a top IS leader himself, but also a person of interest in the deadly 2012 attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya.
“His death will impact IS's ability to integrate foreign fighters into the Syrian and Iraqi fight as well as to move people and equipment across the border between Syria and Iraq," said Pentagon spokesman Capt. Jeff Davis in a statement.
As an IS member, he worked to raise funds and recruit and facilitate the travel of fighters for the terrorist organization. Harzi also worked to provide materiel to IS by procuring and shipping weapons from Libya to Syria for IS.
"Harzi also facilitated the use of suicide and vehicle-borne improvised explosive device attacks in Iraq," Davis added.
The US State Department had set a $3-million reward for information leading to his death or capture in May. Last week, the Pentagon confirmed his brother Ali’s death in a US airstrike on June 15. Though a “person of interest” in the deadly September 2012 attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, he was targeted because he was an IS battlefield commander, US military officials said.
