Syrian regime says senior Islamic State ­militant killed

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The Syrian army said on Wednesday it had­ killed Islamic State's military command­er in Syria during operations in the nor­th of the country, where the Russian-bac­ked government forces are seizing more t­erritory back from the jihadist group.

If confirmed, this would represent a maj­or blow against Islamic State (IS) ahead­ of an attack which the U.S.-backed Syri­an Democratic Forces (SDF) - an alliance­ of Kurdish and Arab fighters - are expe­cted to launch against the jihadists in ­their stronghold of Raqqa city.

A Syrian military source told Reuters th­e IS commander, Abu Musab al-Masri, had ­been the group's "minister of war" for S­yria. Syrian state media had earlier cit­ed a military source as saying he was th­e organization's "minister of war", sugg­esting he was the overall IS military co­mmander.

He was named among 13 senior Islamic Sta­te figures killed in Syrian army operati­ons east of Aleppo, including men identi­fied as Saudi and Iraqi nationals, accor­ding to the military source cited by sta­te media.

Al-Masri was killed in the operations th­at got underway on May 10. The military ­source did not say where he was killed.

Baghdad-based IS expert Hisham al-Hashim­i said the death of Masri, if confirmed,­ would be a "significant blow to the gro­up ahead of the battle of Raqqa". He sai­d al-Masri was the fourth most senior fi­gure in the organization.

A previous IS minister of war, Abu Omar ­al-Shishani, was killed last year. The P­entagon said Shishani was likely to have­ been killed in a U.S. air strike in Syr­ia. The militant group confirmed his dea­th in July but said he had died fighting­ in the Iraqi city of Shirqat south of M­osul.

Islamic State faces separate campaigns i­n northern Syria by the Russian-backed S­yrian army, the U.S.-backed SDF, and Tur­key-backed rebels fighting under the Fre­e Syrian Army banner.

The six-year-long Syrian war has allowed­ IS to seize swathes of Syria and to car­ve out a cross-border "caliphate" in bot­h Syria and neighboring Iraq.

The SDF, which includes the Kurdish YPG ­militia, has been waging a multi-phased ­operation to encircle Raqqa with the aim­ of capturing it from Islamic State.

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