ISIS No. 2 Leader and Finance Minister Killed in Airstrike, Pentagon Says

ISIS finance minister and no. 2 leader of the self-proclaimed Islamic State was killed by American Special Forces working with a coalition of local groups in eastern Syria.

The commander Abd al-Rahman Mustafa al-Qaduli, who had many aliases including Abu Alaa al-Afri and Haji Imam, was being followed by two helicopters, and the original plan by the military forces was to capture him alive, but his vehicle was fired on for yet undisclosed reasons, reportedly killing him.

"We are systematically eliminating ISIL's [ISIS] cabinet," Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said at a news briefing to confirm the report.

Carter called Qaduli a "senior leader serving as a finance minister who was also involved in external operations and plots."

Qaduli had a reward of $7 million on him. "Leaders can be replaced, however, these leaders have been around for a long time. They are senior. They're experienced. So eliminating them is an important objective and achieves an important result," Carter continued.

According to the Pentagon, Qaduli managed the ISIS' funding, apart from handling daily operations of the organization and supporting groups in Syria, Libya, and Iraq.

He also was the second-in-command to ISIS chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who at present seems to have taken a back seat in communications with the lower ranks of the organization.

Qaduli was member of Al Qaeda, and was a senior Islamic State leader who was released from prison in 2012, and later again joined the ISIS.

He was a follower of Abu Musaab al-Suri, a jihadi scholar, and used to teach physics in Mosul, before being designated as stand-in leader for Baghdadi.

Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at a Pentagon press release: "I think the momentum is in our favor. I think there are a lot of reasons ... for us to be optimistic about the next several months. But by no means would I say that we're about to break the back of ISIL or ... that the fight is over."