Top IS leader killed in US-led strike

Manama : Bahraini Islamic State leader and preacher Turki Al Binali has been killed in a US-led international coalition strike in Syria.

Al Binali was killed in Raqqa, Syria, in an airstrike by the US-led Global Coalition Against ISIS (aka Daesh), the organisation’s news channels confirmed on Thursday.

The citizenship of Al Binali, who was also known as Abu Humam Al Athari, Abu Sufyan Al Salim and Abu Huthayfah Al Bahraini, was revoked by Interior Ministry here in January 2015, along with other 72 Bahrainis in view of their threat to the Kingdom’s national security.

In February 2015, the man was spotted in Libya, taking the responsibility of spreading the ideology of the organisation in the war-torn country.

His appearance raised questions on how he travelled to another continent without holding any legal documents.

Al Binali had urged the residents of the city of Sirte to pledge allegiance to the leader of ISIS, Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi.

Press reports confirmed that the 31-year-old, who was earlier the Imam of a mosque in Muharraq, is in fact the current chief religious speaker of the new “caliphate” formed by the organisation.

Reports also affirmed that he wrote books and lectured across Iraq and Syria to prove the legitimacy of the new Islamic State, in addition to inviting and recruiting new members.

He was blacklisted by the US in February 2016, for helping IS recruited foreign fighters and considered him as the chief religious authority in the terrorist organisation.