US: Islamic State leader killed in Iraq’s Anbar province

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon says a top Islamic State leader in Iraq’s Anbar province has been killed by a coalition airstrike.

Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook says Abu Wahib and three others were killed when their vehicle was struck on May 6 in Rutba. He says Wahib’s death is a blow to the group’s leadership.

A senior US official said it was an American airstrike. The official was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly, so spoke on condition of anonymity.

Cook says Wahib was a former member of al-Qaeda in Iraq and has appeared in Islamic State execution videos. There have been unconfirmed reports in the past suggesting Wahib was targeted by strikes, but this is the first time the Pentagon has said he was killed.

The jihadi commander was on death row in an Iraqi prison when he escaped during a 2012 riot led by members of al-Qaeda in Iraq.

He resurfaced the next year when he was filmed executing three Syrian taxi drivers in the desert.

Abu Wahib, the 29-year-old commander of the Sunni Al-Anbar Lions militia, was ridiculed on social media last year, after he was photographed standing next to a black IS truck in Iraq’s Anbar province, wearing brown camouflage and a black beret.

A member of the anti-Islamic State group Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently named Abu Mohammed posted a picture of the bearded Wahib next to a photo of shawarma being roasted on a spit with the caption #same.

Easily confused: Islamic State commander Abu Wahib's unusually-coloured military fatigues (right) were … http://t.co/KeFrYzmPpC

— Quinton O' Hara (@QuintonOHara) March 17, 2015