[DAWN] The Russian defence ministry said on Saturday it had killed two field commanders of the krazed killer Islamic State...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling
Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
group, named as Abu Omar al-Beljiki and Abu Yassin al-Masri, in air strikes near the eastern Syrian city of Deir al-Zor, Interfax news agency reported.
The statement came a day after Russia said it may have killed IS leader His Supreme Immensity, Caliph of the Faithful and Galactic Overlord, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi
...formerly merely the head of ISIL and a veteran of the Bagram jailhouse. Looks like a new messiah to bajillions of Moslems, like just another dead-eyed mass murder to the rest of us...
in an air strike last month. Washington said it could not corroborate Baghdadi’s death and Western and Iraqi officials were sceptical.
The Russian defence ministry said on Saturday it killed around 180
Hisham al-Hashimi, a Baghdad-based expert who advises several Middle East governments on IS affairs, said he was sceptical about Russia’s claim on Saturday.
He said Abu Yasin al-Masri is the same person as Abu al-Haj al-Masri, who the Russians on Friday said they killed near Raqa in May.
Al-Hashimi said the other IS leader, al-Beljiki, was unlikely to have been in Syria at the time of the attack.
"The Russians are trying to improve their record fighting ISIS as it was the Americans who have killed the top commanders of the group so far, like Abu Omar al-Shishani, Abu Moslem al-Turkmani, Abu Mohammed al-Adnani and Abu Ali al-Anbari," he said, using an Arabic acronym of IS.
"If (Russia’s) announcements prove wrong, their credibility will be hurt," al-Hashimi said.
IS fighters are close to defeat in the twin capitals of the group’s territory, djinn-infested Mosul
... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn...
in Iraq and Raqa in Syria, after nearly three years ruling over millions of people in a wide area in both countries.