IS 고위급 10명 공습으로 사망…파리테러 총책 관련자도

지난 한 달간 미국 주도 국제동맹군의 시리아·이라크 공습으로 프랑스 파리 테러 총책과 연계된 인물을 비롯한 극단주의 무장조직 '이슬람국가'(IS) 지도자급 10명이 사망했다고 미 국방부가 29일(현지시간) 밝혔다.

이라크 바그다드에 주둔 중인 미군 대변인 스티브 워런은 이날 기자들에게 "프랑스 국적의 IS 고위 간부인 샤라프 알무아단(26)이 서방을 상대로 또 다른 테러 공격을 준비하던 중 지난 24일 시리아에서 공습으로 숨졌다"고 말했다.

알무아단은 파리 테러 총책으로 알려진 압델하미드 아바우드와 직접 연계된 인물이라고 워런 대변인은 설명했다.

아바우드는 지난달 13일 파리 연쇄 테러를 지휘한 것으로 지목됐으며, 테러 발생 5일 뒤 파리 외곽 생드니의 은신처에서 프랑스 경찰의 검거작전 중 사망했다.

다만 알무아단은 파리 테러에 직접적으로 관련되지는 않은 것으로 알려졌다.

(Yonhap)

프랑스 사법당국 한 관계자는 현재로서는 알무아단이 파리 테러에 관여했다는 증거가 없다면서 알무아단은 바타클랑 극장 자폭 테러범 사미 아미무르와 가까운 사이였다고 AFP통신에 전했다.

알무아단의 부모는 모로코 출신으로 그는 파리 교외에서 자랐다. 알무아단은 2012년 10월 프랑스에서 체포된 적도 있다고 또 다른 소식통은 전했다.

지난 한달 동안 동맹군 공습으로 사망한 10명 가운데는 대외작전 협력을 담당하는 위조 전문가인 압델 카데르 하킴도 포함됐다.

워런 대변인은 지난 26일 이라크 모술에서 사망한 하킴은 파리 테러범 일당과 연계된 인물이라면서 "유럽 내 많은 연결망을 지닌 중요한 조력자를 제거하게 됐다"고 설명했다. (연합)

IS leader linked to Paris attacks ‘mastermind’ killed in Syria

An Islamic State leader with “direct” ties to the alleged mastermind of the Paris attacks was among 10 of the group’s higher-ups killed in Syria and Iraq this month, the Pentagon said Tuesday.

The US military says such strikes are helping to weaken the jihadist group, which captured large parts of Iraq and Syria last year but has recently seen significant setbacks including this week’s loss of Ramadi in Iraq.

Baghdad-based US military spokesman Colonel Steve Warren said French national Charaffe el Mouadan was killed in a US-led coalition strike on December 24. He had been plotting further attacks against the West, Warren said.

"He was a Syrian-based ISIL member with a direct link to Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the Paris attacks cell leader,” Warren said in a video call, using an alternative acronym for the IS group.

Abaaoud was killed in a police raid in Paris five days after the November 13 attacks that left 130 people dead and hundreds more wounded in a series of coordinated attacks across the French capital.

A French source, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP there was no immediate evidence showing Mouadan was involved in the Paris attacks.

But the official said Mouadan had been close to Samy Amimour, one of the suicide bombers who attacked the Bataclan music venue.

Mouadan, 26, grew up in a grimy Paris suburb and was the son of Morocco-born parents and one of eight siblings.

He was arrested in October 2012 while preparing to travel with Amimour and a third man, Samir Bouabout, to fight in either Yemen or Afghanistan, a source close to the investigation told AFP.

Though the men faced charges, they were nonetheless released, and had within a year found their way to Syria.

Mouadan’s path to radicalization appears to have been through the Internet, just as investigators believe was the case for Amimour and Bouabout.

The source said a witness at the Bataclan heard an attacker ask whether a fellow assailant was going to call a certain “Souleymane.”

Souleymane was the name Mouadan used on Twitter and in Syria, but it’s a common nickname and French investigators aren’t sure the attacker was referring to Mouadan.

The United States has since August 2014 led an international coalition attacking the IS group in Iraq and Syria.

France started bombing Syria in the wake of the Paris attacks, but Warren would not say if Paris was involved in the strike against Mouadan.

Among the other leaders killed this month was Abdel Kader Hakim, an “external operations facilitator” who was killed in Mosul, Iraq on December 26.

Warren said Hakim was a veteran fighter and forgery specialist who had links to the Paris attack network, but he did not give additional details.

"His death removes an important facilitator with many connections in Europe,” Warren said.

And on December 10, Siful Haque Sujan, a Bangladeshi man who was educated in Britain and was allegedly an IS hacker, was killed near the IS stronghold of Raqa in Syria.

After months of preparations, the Iraqi military declared the city of Ramadi liberated from the IS group on Monday after clinching a landmark victory against the jihadists.

Warren said that part of the success in Ramadi and other areas was due to the killing of IS leaders.

“We’re striking at the head of this snake,” he said, while cautioning that “it’s still got fangs.”

The Pentagon listed the other slain IS leaders as:

-- Rawand Dilsher Taher, an “external operations facilitator,” who was killed near Raqa

-- Khalil Ahmad Ali al-Wais, the IS “emir of Kirkuk province” in Iraq

-- Abu Anas, a roadside bomb expert who was killed near Kirkuk

-- Yunis Khalash, IS’s “deputy financial emir” in Mosul

-- Mithaq Najim, IS’s “deputy emir” in Kirkuk Province

-- Akram Muhammad Sa’ad Faris, an IS “commander and executioner,” in Tal Afar, Iraq

-- Tashin al-Hayali, an “external operations facilitator,” who was killed near Mosul in Iraq. (AFP)