Islamic State suffers double blow as Ramadi falls, leaders killed

U.S.-led forces have killed 10 Islamic State
leaders in air strikes, including individuals linked
to the Paris attacks, a U.S. spokesman said,
dealing a double blow to the militant group after
Iraqi forces ousted it from the city of Ramadi.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi planted the
national flag in Ramadi after the army retook the
city center from Islamic State, a victory that could
help vindicate his strategy for rebuilding the
military after stunning defeats.
"Over the past month, we've killed 10 ISIL
leadership figures with targeted air strikes,
including several external attack planners,
some of whom are linked to the Paris
attacks," said U.S. Army Colonel Steve
Warren, a spokesman for the U.S.-led
campaign against the Islamist group also
known by the acronym ISIL.
"Others had designs on further attacking
the West."
One of those killed was Abdul Qader Hakim, who
facilitated the militants' external operations and
had links to the Paris attack network, Warren
said. He was killed in the northern Iraqi city of
Mosul on Dec. 26.
Two days earlier, a coalition air strike in Syria
killed Charaffe al Mouadan, a Syria-based Islamic
State member with a direct link to Abdelhamid
Abaaoud, the suspected ringleader of the
coordinated bombings and shootings in Paris on
Nov. 13 which killed 130 people, Warren said.
Mouadan was planning further attacks against
the West, he added.
Air strikes on Islamic State's leadership helped
explain recent battlefield successes against the
group, which also lost control of a dam on a
strategic supply route near its de facto capital of
Raqqa in Syria on Saturday.
"Part of those successes is attributable to
the fact that the organization is losing its
leadership," Warren said. He warned,
however: "It's still got fangs."