A news agency that supports Islamic State said the group’s senior operative Abu Omar al-Shishani (the Chechen) had been killed in combat in the Iraqi city of Shirqat, south of Mosul.

The Pentagon said in March that Shishani, whom it described as the group’s “minister of war,” had likely been killed in a US airstrike in Syria.

Reuters could not independently verify the statement from Amaq, which Islamic State regularly uses to issue news.