ISIS second-in-command killed in airstrike, Iraqi intelligence says

Ayad al-Jumaili, believed to bea deputy of ISISleader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, waskilled in an airstrike on Friday, an Iraqi intelligencespokesman said on Saturday.

The U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syriasaid it was unableat the moment to confirm the information that was reportedearlier in the day by Iraqi state-run TV.

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Jumaili was killed with other ISIScommanders in astrike carried out by the Iraqi air force in the region ofal-Qaim, near the border with Syria, a military intelligencespokesman told Reuters.

"The air force's planes executed with accuracy a strike onthe headquarters of Daesh in al-Qaim... resulting in the killingof Daesh's second-in-command ...Ayad al-Jumaili, alias Abu Yahya,the war minister," state TV said earlier, citing a statementfrom the directorate of military intelligence.

290,000 flee

Iraqi forces, backed by a U.S.-led coalition, have beenbattling to retake the city of Mosul, ISIS's strongholdin Iraq and the city where Baghdadi declared a caliphate nearlythree years ago.

Nearly 290,000 people have fled the city to escape thefighting, according to the United Nations.

The Iraqi state TV report is the first by an official mediato announce the death of Jumaili, who was an intelligence
officer under Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi president toppled in the2003 U.S.-led invasion.

Jumaili led ISIS's top security agency in Iraq andSyria, known as Amniya, answering directly to Baghdadi, according to experts.

Preparing for insurgency

Although the loss of Mosul would effectively end ISIS's territorial rule in Iraq, U.S. and Iraqi officials are preparing for the groupto go underground and fight aninsurgency like the one that followed the U.S.-led invasion.

The last official report about Baghdadi was from the Iraqimilitary on Feb. 13. Iraqi F-16s carried out a strike on a house
where he was thought to be meeting other commanders, in westernIraq, near the Syrian border, they said in a statement.

More than 40 leading members of the group have been killed incoalition airstrikes, according to experts. Baghdadi has notofficially appointed a successor.

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