White House says "Islamic State deputy Al-Hayali killed in US military airstrike"

The No. 2 leader of the Islamic State militant group was killed in a US military airstrike in Iraq earlier this week, the White House said Friday. Ned Price, a spokesman for the White House National Security Council, said Fadhil Ahmad al-Hayali was traveling in a vehicle near Mosul, in northern Iraq, when he was killed Tuesday.

As the senior deputy to IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, al-Hayali was the primary coordinator for moving large amounts of weapons, explosives, vehicles and people between Iraq and Syria, where IS militants control vast amounts of territory. The United States is leading a coalition of countries that have spent the past year striking at IS militants, weaponry and machinery from the air but has made little progress in meeting President Barack Obama’s goal to “degrade and destroy” the group, which has also beheaded hostages, including some Americans.