ISIL commander reported on life support after U.S. strike

Special to WorldTribune.com

A top Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) commander is said to be “clinically dead” after being wounded in a U.S.-led coalition airstrike earlier this month.

Omar al-Shishani
Omar al-Shishani

Omar al-Shishani, the red-bearded terrorist known as Omar the Chechen, has been “clinically dead” for several days, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on March 13.

“Shishani is not able to breathe on his own” and needs machines to breathe for him, said Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman.

Richard Barrett of the U.S.-based Soufan Group, described Shishani as ISIL’s “most senior military commander,” adding that he has been in charge of several key battles.

A U.S. official said on March 9 that Shishani “likely died” in a U.S. strike on March 4 in northeastern Syria.

Washington put a $5 million bounty on Shishani, who the U.S. official said was “the ISIL equivalent of the secretary of defense.”

Shishani comes from the Pankisi Gorge, a mainly ethnic Chechen region of ex-Soviet state Georgia.