The Pentagon on Monday confirmed that Islamic State (ISIS) leader and spokesman Abu Mohamed al-Adnani was killed by an American airstrike in northern Syria last month, AFP reports.
"The strike near Al Bab, Syria, removes from the battlefield ISIL's chief propagandist, recruiter and architect of external terrorist operations," Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said, using an alternative acronym for ISIS.
"It is one in a series of successful strikes against ISIL leaders, including those responsible for finances and military planning, that make it harder for the group to operate," Cook added.
The August 30 air strike was conducted by a Predator drone, which fired a Hellfire missile at the car Adnani was traveling in.
Adnani was believed to have been ISIS's second highest ranking leader, after founder Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
He was heard from as recently as last May, calling for attacks on the U.S. during the holy month of Ramadan.
Officials say Adnani had played a major role during some of the group's most high-profile attacks over the past year, including in Paris, at the Brussels and Istanbul airports, at a cafe in Bangladesh, as well as the downing of a Russian airliner in the Sinai and suicide bombings at a rally in Ankara.
Cook has previously said Adnani had coordinated the movement of ISIS fighters, encouraged lone-wolf attacks on civilians and members of the military and actively recruited new members for the jihadist group.
Soon after the strike against Adnani, Russia claimed it was responsible for his death, a claim Pentagon officials dismissed as a "joke."