Head of ISIL operations killed in drone strike near Mosul

CNN:

The No. 2 figure in ISIS, Haji Mutazz, was killed in an August 18 drone strike near Mosul, Iraq, a spokesman for the U.S. National Security Council announced Friday.

Ned Price confirmed what several U.S. officials told CNN earlier, and added that Mutazz was traveling in a car with a Islamic State media operative named Abu Abdullah when the vehicle was hit.

Price said in a written statement Mutazz was in charge of ISIS operations in Iraq and was a key military planner. The U.S. also believes Mutazz was prominently involved in directing ISIS' financial operations.

The death of Mutazz, who also goes by several other names such as Fadhil Ahmad al-Hayali, is a bit of a mystery. Several news organizations, including CNN, reported his death at the end of last year, based on information from senior U.S. administration officials.

One U.S. official said it appears the United States had a wrong identification at that time.

"Al-Hayali's death will adversely impact ISIL's operations given that his influence spanned ISIL's finance, media, operations, and logistics," Price said, using the U.S. government's acronym for ISIS (ISIL).
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This will inconvenience ISIL but it is unlikely to be decisive.   In fact Obama has refused to use decisive force against ISIL or other terrorist.  If he can't launch a drone strike or a special ops raid, it just is not happening.  That is why ISIL continues to be a very dangerous terrorist organization that unlike others gets its strength from controlling real estate.  To defeat it  adversaries must deprive it of its hold on property in Iraq and Syria.  Against a wiser leader, this group could be easily defeated with combined arms operations.  If that happened their strength would become a vulnerability and they would also lose their appeal to lone wolf terrorist.