23 November 2016•Update: 23 November 2016
By Serhad Shaker and Mohamed Walid
NINEVEH, Iraq
The Daesh terrorist group’s "information minister" has been killed by an airstrike in the northern city of Mosul, the Iraqi army said Wednesday.
In a statement, the army said Iraqi warplanes had struck Daesh positions in Mosul, which remains the target of a wide-ranging military offensive now in its fifth week.
According to the army statement, Zeyad Kharoufa -- believed to have been responsible for Daesh’s elaborate propaganda machine -- was killed in one of the airstrikes.
In a related development, Iraq’s Military Intelligence Directorate announced that a Daesh aerial drone had been shot down west of Mosul.
In a statement, the directorate said the drone had been brought down in the Mahlabya district (some 35 kilometers west of Mosul) with the help of the Hashd al-Shaabi militia group.
An umbrella group of pro-government Shia militias, the Hashd al-Shaabi was established in 2014 with the express aim of fighting Daesh.
In mid-2014, the terrorist group overran vast swathes of territory in northern and western Iraq, including Mosul.
