Islamic State (ISIS) flag
Islamic State (ISIS) flagReuters

A key military commander for the Islamic State (ISIS) group in Syria has been killed in an air strike carried out by the U.S.-led coalition, the Pentagon said Thursday, according to AFP.

Abu Jandal al-Kuwaiti died Monday near Tabqa Dam, west of the ISIS stronghold of Raqa, said a statement from Centcom, the U.S. military command in the Middle East.

Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group, described al-Kuwaiti as the "number two military commander for ISIS in Syria."

The jihadi commander led battles in Iraq and Syria, and was most recently assigned to Raqa where he oversaw attacks on the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the Observatory said.

The SDF, an Arab-Kurdish alliance backed by U.S. ground and air forces, launched an offensive to retake Raqa in early November.

Al-Kuwaiti was involved in using suicide vehicles, IEDs and chemical weapons against the SDF, Centcom said.

He was previously a member of the ISIS "War Committee" and involved in the group's retaking of the central Syrian city of Palmyra on December 11, just eight months after the army backed by Russia drove them out.

Al-Kuwaiti’s death follows the recent deaths of several senior ISIS leaders in coalition air strikes.

In October, ISIS confirmed the death of its propaganda chief, Wa'il Adil Hasan Salman al-Fayad.

His death followed that of ISIS spokesman Abu Mohamed al-Adnani, who was killed in an American air strike on August 30.

Adnani was believed to have been ISIS's second highest ranking leader, after founder Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

AFP contributed to this report.