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From Washington, this is VOA news. I'm David Byrd reporting. U.S. officials say a top Islamic State leader has been killed in Iraq.
National Security Council spokesman Ned Price said that Fadhil Ahmad al-Hayali, also known as Hajji Mutazz, was killed in an airstrike on August 18 while traveling near the Iraqi city of Mosul. The NSC identified al-Hayali as a member of the extremist group's Shura Council and a senior deputy to Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. It said he was a primary coordinator for moving large amounts of weapons, explosives, vehicles and people between Iraq and Syria. Max Abrahms is a terrorism expert at Northeastern University. "Even though this high-level guy does seem to have been killed now, I don't think that it will significantly influence Islamic State's ability to generate violence." This is not the first time that al-Hayali has been reported killed. Late last year, a senior Defense Department official said that he appeared to have been one of three high-ranking Islamic State officials killed in a series of drone strikes in November and December. Worries about slowing economic growth in China, rising political uncertainty in Greece and fears about plans to raise U.S. interest rates shook investors and sparked a global stock sell-off on Friday. Major U.S. indexes were down by three percent or more at Friday's close. [Europe], European, that is, markets fell three percent. Asian indexes were also off. Concerns about faltering growth in the world's second-largest economy also pushed down the price for oil and other commodities. Crude oil costs fell below $40 per barrel for a while, a new six-year low. This is VOA news. U.S. defense officials say that annual drills by American and South Korean military forces have resumed despite a dispute that prompted Pyongyang to declare it is in a "quasi state of war." Assistant U.S. Secretary of Defense for Asia and Pacific Affairs David Shear said the military exercises have resumed as planned, but he did say the U.S. is continually monitoring heightened tensions on the Korean peninsula. "The DPRK's provocative actions heightened tensions, and we call on Pyongyang to refrain from actions and rhetoric that threaten regional peace and stability, and we are at one with our ROK ally on this." North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had placed its military forces on high alert Friday. North Korea's deputy U.N. ambassador An Myong Hun condemned the exercises as a provocation. "If South Korea does not respond to our ultimatum, our military counteraction will be inevitable, and that counteraction will be very strong." North Korea routinely condemns the allies' annual military exercises and frequently says they amount to a declaration of war against the Communist state. However, the joint drills usually continue as scheduled. Hundreds of immigrants crowded into a train station on the Greco-Macedonian border Friday after Macedonia announced that it would allow in a limited number of illegal migrants in what were called "vulnerable categories." The Interior Ministry said the vulnerable migrants would be assisted "in accordance with the state's capacities," but it did not say what the vulnerable categories were. Hundreds of migrants crossed the border from Greece into Macedonia Friday. Earlier in the day, riot police had used stun grenades and barriers of barbed wire to hold back the crowds who had surged during the night, demanding they be allowed to pass through Macedonia to European Union countries. French police says that two people were wounded when a gunman opened fire on a high-speed train traveling from Amsterdam to Paris Friday. Two off duty American soldiers subdued the attacker, a 26-year-old Moroccan. French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said that one of the Americans was wounded and is hospitalized with serious injuries. Investigators with France's special anti-terror police are leading the inquiry. And humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders says dozens of people, many of them civilians, have been killed in Saudi-led airstrikes in the southern Yemeni city of Taiz. The aid organization said houses were reduced to rubble and many of the victims were women and children. I'm David Byrd in Washington. That's the latest world news from VOA. |