ISIS confirms 'Omar the Chechen' is dead

The ISIS has confirmed that its senior leader Abu Omar al-Shishani known as 'Omar the Chechen' is dead, months after the Pentagon and a British-based monitoring group said that he was killed in Syria.

Regarded by Pentagon as Islamic State's "minister of war", Abu Omar al-Shishani is said to have died in a U.S. air strike in Syria.

During that time, the report was confirmed by both the high-level officials in Washington as well as the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The ISIS propaganda agency Amaq yesterday claimed that Shishani had been killed in combat operation in the Iraqi city of Shirqat, south of Mosul, reports the Guardian.

Meanwhile, the officials at the Pentagon said that they were aware of the report, but could not confirm or deny it.

Head of the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdelrahman, said that Shishani had been wounded in March and died soon after in the countryside east of Raqqa.

Shishani was one of the most wanted militants under a U.S. programme that offered up to $5 million bounty on him.