umar-shishani

Tarkhan Batirashvili

TBILISI, DFWatch–Ten bodies of Islamic State fighters were found east of the Iraqi city of Ramadi, including the body of Tarkhan Batirashvili (Omar al-Shishani), the Iraqi TV channel Al Sumaria reported.

General in the Iraqi army Islail Mahlawi told Al Sumaria that the army ‘found ten bodies belonging to Islamic State fighters during the clearing of Albu Obayd area east of Ramadi next to the international highway, one of them belonging to Omar al-Shishani’.

The TV channel also reports the general saying that ‘the army managed to find weapons and equipment near the bodies’.

Last week, Pentagon officials confirmed Mr Batirashvili’s death in an airstrike in Hasaka Province in north-eastern Syria on March 4.

The alleged death or capture of Tarkhan Batirashvili was reported several times in 2014 and 2015, although the reports didn’t turn out to be true. This time, major Western news outlets reported about his death in American airstrikes, while the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported him to be seriously injured.