Senior ISIS Leader Killed In Coalition Airstrike: Report

Report: Senior ISIS Leader Killed In Coalition Airstrike
In this photo taken in Akcakale, Sanliurfa province, southeastern Turkey from the Turkish side of the border between Turkey and Syria, smoke from a US-led airstrike rises over the outskirts of Tal Abyad, Syria, Sunday, June 14, 2015. Syrian Kurdish fighters closed in on the outskirts of a strategic Islamic State-held town on the Turkish border Sunday, Kurdish officials and an activist group said, potentially cutting off a key supply line for the extremists' nearby de facto capital. Taking Tal Abyad, some 80 kilometers (50 miles) from the Islamic State stronghold of Raqqa, would mean the group wouldn't have a direct route to bring in new foreign militants or supplies.(AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)
In this photo taken in Akcakale, Sanliurfa province, southeastern Turkey from the Turkish side of the border between Turkey and Syria, smoke from a US-led airstrike rises over the outskirts of Tal Abyad, Syria, Sunday, June 14, 2015. Syrian Kurdish fighters closed in on the outskirts of a strategic Islamic State-held town on the Turkish border Sunday, Kurdish officials and an activist group said, potentially cutting off a key supply line for the extremists' nearby de facto capital. Taking Tal Abyad, some 80 kilometers (50 miles) from the Islamic State stronghold of Raqqa, would mean the group wouldn't have a direct route to bring in new foreign militants or supplies.(AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)

WASHINGTON, July 2 (Reuters) - The U.S. military said on Thursday a coalition airstrike in Syria killed a senior Islamic State leader who helped fundraise, secure arms and transport fighters for the militant group.

The June 16 strike killed Tariq bin Tahar al-'Awni al-Harzi, the Pentagon said, identifying him as the brother of another fighter linked to the 2012 attack on a U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya.

"His death will impact ISIL's ability to integrate foreign terrorist fighters into the Syrian and Iraqi fight as well as to move people and equipment across the border between Syria and Iraq," said Captain Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, using an acronym for Islamic State.

The Pentagon had previously reported that Harzi's brother was killed in a U.S. airstrike on June 15 on Mosul, Iraq.

(Reporting by Phil Stewart; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

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