A coalition airstrike on Sept. 7 killed a senior ISIS leader who served as the group’s minister of information, the Pentagon announced. The strike near Raqqa, Syria, killed Wa’il Adil Hasan Salman al-Fayad, or Dr. Wa’il, who led the group’s propaganda and served as a member of the group’s senior leadership group, Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said in a Friday statement. Wa’il, as minister of information, oversaw production of propaganda videos, including those showing executions. He was a close associate of ISIS spokesman Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, who was killed in an Aug. 30 strike. “The removal of ISIL’s senior leaders degrades its ability to retain territory, and its ability to plan, finance, and direct attacks inside and outside of the region,” Cook said in the statement.
The Pentagon did not include any funding for the the E-7A Wedgetail in its 2027 budget request, setting up another round in its fight with Congress over the future of the Boeing-built successor to the E-3 Sentry Airborne Early Warning and Control jet.