U.S. And Russia Both Claim They Killed Top ISIS Commander

The Washington Times: Washington and Moscow clashed Wednesday over who actually killed a top Islamic State commander, with the Pentagon pushing back against Russia’s claim that a Russian airstrike — not an American one — successfully targeted Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, one of the founding members and a chief strategist of the brutal jihadi movement.

“We have no information to support Russia’s claim that they also carried out a strike against Adnani,” said Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook, questioning Moscow’s contention that the commander was killed by a Russian bomb on Tuesday.

The bulk of Russia’s military campaign in Syria has been spent “supporting and propping up” the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad, Mr. Cook told reporters at the Pentagon on Wednesday afternoon, adding that Moscow “has not devoted much, if any, effort that we’re aware of targeting ISIL’s leadership.”

“At the same time,” he said, “we have not seen the Russian military campaign use precision weaponry on a regular basis.”

The lack of clarity on the Adnani strike, meanwhile, underscores the chaos that continues to envelop the 5-year-old, multifront civil war in Syria, where the U.S. is far from the lone international power jockeying for influence. The situation has grown only more complex since last week, when the Turkey suddenly opened its largest military incursion into Syria since the start of the war.

Turkey’s involvement in the U.S.-led campaign against the Islamic State has for years caused concern among U.S. officials, wary that Ankara’s real goal is to create a pretext for crushing Kurdish militants whom Washington has relied upon to retake territory in northern Syria and Iraq.