IS finance chief ‘killed in air strikes’

The finance chief of so-called Islamic State has been killed in air strikes by the US-led coalition, a US military spokesman has said, BBC reports.

Muwaffaq Mustafa Mohammed al-Karmoush, aka Abu Salah, and two other senior leaders were killed in the strikes which took place in ‘recent weeks’.

No further details were given.

The coalition has been carrying out air strikes against IS militants in Iraq and Syria for over a year. One recently also killed an IS leader in Libya.

US military spokesman Col Steve Warren confirmed the deaths in a video call from the Iraqi capital, Baghdad.

Abu Salah is the code name for Muwaffaq Mustafa Mohammed al-Karmoush. He appears on the US Treasury`s Counter Terrorism Designations list setting out sanctioned individuals.

It lists him as an Iraqi national who was born in 1973. Col Warren called Abu Salah ‘one of the most senior and experienced members’ of the militant group`s financial network.

‘Killing him and his predecessors exhausts the knowledge and talent needed to co-ordinate funding within the organisation,’ Col Warren said.

He said the other leaders killed were Abu Mariam, a senior chief responsible for extortion activities, and Abu Waqman al-Tunis, who co-ordinated the transfer of people, weapons and information.