Georgia-born top ISIS terrorist dies in attack, Pentagon confirms
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A Georgian-born man who fled to Iraq and became a military leader of terrorist group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is dead, the Pentagon confirms.
Omar al-Shishani (Omar the Chechen) was the nom de guerre of Tarkhan Batirashvili, born and raised in the Pankisi Gorge, a valley mainly inhabited by the Kist sub-ethnos in northeastern Georgia that borders the Chechnyan republic of the Russian Federation.
United States (US) defence officials confirmed to the BBC Shishani died from injuries sustained in a recent US air strike in north-eastern Syria.
The strike took place on March 4 near the town of Shaddadi, where Shishani had reportedly been sent to bolster local ISIS forces.
Earlier reports suggested Shishani could have survived the attack on an ISIS convoy but early this morning a Pentagon spokesman confirmed the terrorist leader "is dead".
On Sunday the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said the ISIS leader had been "clinically dead" for several days.
Shishani was one of several ISIS leaders most wanted by Washington, which put a $5 million USD bounty on his head.
Reports regarding his death have spread via international media several times in the past but all earlier reports of his death proved false at that time.
Shishani, who once served in the Georgian Army, is understood to have joined ISIS in 2013. After rising up the ranks he was put in charge of a prison near Raqqa where the terror organisation might have held foreign hostages.
He had a reputation as one of the terror group’s most capable commanders.
"Batirashvili is a battle-tested leader with experience who had led ISIL fighters in numerous engagements in Iraq and Syria," Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said in the statement after the initial strike but before his death was confirmed, CNN reported.
"His potential removal from the battlefield would negatively impact ISIL's ability to recruit foreign fighters - especially those from Chechnya and the Caucus regions - and degrade ISIL's ability to coordinate attacks and defence of its strongholds like Raqqah, Syria, and Mosul, Iraq.”
A young Georgian man has pled guilty to spreading a message online that incited violence and contained a threat of terrorism, and could now face a prison sentence of six to 11 years.
Seven people have been arrested and charged with attempting to carry out terror-related crimes in Georgia. Georgia’s State Security Service (SSS) has prevented a terror attack in Georgia, which aimed to set off five explosions along a Russia-Armenia gas pipeline that passed through Georgian soil.
Georgia’s State Security Service and US Terrorist Screening Center signed an Intergovernmental Agreement today to prevent and address terrorism through joint efforts.
The United States (US) Bureau of Counterterrorism and Countering Violent Extremism has published country reports on terrorism for 2016.
The 14-year-old son of Ahmad Pareulidze, who served as the chief guard of Georgian-born ISIS top terrorist Omar Al-Shishani, has died in Syria, Pankisi radio reported.
German police have arrested a Russian national, 49, who faces charges for the murder of Georgian citizen, Zelimkhan Khangoshvili, a native of Georgia’s Pankisi Gorge by origin. Veteran of the Second Chechen War (1999-2009) Zelimkhan Khangoshvili, 40, was shot on August 23 in Berlin was on his way to Friday prayers.
Moscow has denied any link to the assassination of an ethnic Chechen citizen of Georgia Zelimkhan Khangoshvili, a veteran of the second Chechen War. Zelimkhan Khangoshvili, 40, was shot dead on August 23 in Germany, while he was on his way to Friday prayers. Kremlin press-speaker Dmitry Peskov said on August 28 that Russia “categorically denies any link between Russia and the incident.”