ISIL members linked to Paris attacks killed in US raids, says Pentagon

U.S.-led airstrikes in Syria and Iraq have killed 10 high-ranking ISIL members over the last month, including a fighter with “direct” links to the alleged mastermind of the Paris attacks, the Pentagon said Tuesday.

Army Col. Steve Warren, a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition's military operation against the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, said those killed in the raids included “several external attack planners.” Some were linked to the assaults in Paris that killed 130 people in November, and others “had designs on further attacking the West,” he said.

He said one of those killed was Abdul Qader Hakim, who facilitated ISIL’s external operations and had links to the Paris attack network. He was killed in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on Dec. 26.

A coalition airstrike on Dec. 24 in Syria killed Charaffe al-Mouadan, a Syrian-based ISIL member with a direct link to Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the suspected ringleader of the coordinated bombings and shootings in Paris. Mouadan was planning further attacks against the West, Warren said.

The effect of the airstrikes on ISIL leadership can be seen in recent battlefield successes against the group, he said. The Iraqi army recently saw its first major victory against the group, declaring the recapture this week of Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province, west of Baghdad.

"Part of those successes is attributable to the fact that the organization is losing its leadership," Warren said.

He warned, however, "It's still got fangs."

Al Jazeera and Reuters