Militants Linked To Paris Attacks Killed In US-Led Airstrikes

US-led airstrikes against the Islamic State resulted to the death of ten ISIS commanders in Syria and Iraq in the past few months, according to a US military spokesman. Some of the commanders were linked to the recent attacks in Paris.

Colonel Steven Warren added that plots against targets in the West were planned by some of the commanders who were killed in the airstrikes. While the military spokesman did not provide any details on how they were able to identify the commanders killed in the airstrikes, he was able to identify one individual as Charaffe al-Mouadan., who was killed in one of the US-led airstrikes.

Mr. al-Mouadan was supposedly an associate of a number of the participants in the November 13 attacks in Paris and is wanted by French authorities.

Colonel Warren revealed that Mr. al-Mouadan is directly linked to Abdelhamid Abaaoud, who is considered as the person who planned the attacks in Paris and is working on other plans for more attacks against targets in the West.

Militants Linked To Paris Attacks Killed In US-Led Airstrikes - image credit: theguardian.com

Mr. al-Mouadan is a childhood friend of Samy Amimour, one of the gunmen who attacked the Bataclan, a concert hall in Paris, which resulted to the death of 90 concert-goers. The two grew up in a working-class suburb close to Paris.

An investigation was opened by French authorities into the two men in October 2012. The investigation also included Samir Bouabout, a friend of the two men. Suspicions were raised after Mr. Bouabout took up shooting classes in March 2012.

The General Directorate for Internal Security, the domestic intelligence agency of France, was concerned that the three men will go to Afghanistan or Yemen to join a jihad. However, the men said they only wanted to go to Tunisia.

Mr. al-Moudan was considered to be the leader of the group. He went to Syria in August 2013. French authorities said the three Bataclan attackers fought in Syria under the flag of the Islamic State. Authorities paid attention to him after one survivor of the Bataclan attack revealed that the gunmen talked about asking for advice from an accomplice, whom they referred to as “Souleymane.”

Mr. al-Moudan is also known as Souleyman, which led to suspicion on his involvement in the attacks. He was killed in a US-led airstrike in Syria on December 24.

Posted by James Fried on Wednesday December 30 2015, 11:56 AM EDT. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under World. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0