The US military is still investigating whether a precision strike that targeted an ISIS senior leader was successful, Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook said Wednesday. The strike was carried out Tuesday near Al Bab, Syria, according to a Defense Department release. Cook said the death of Abu Muhammad Al-Adnani, who was the group’s chief spokesman and was responsible for external plotting, recruiting foreign fighters, and encouraging attacks against the West, would be a significant blow to the group. ISIS itself said on Tuesday that Al-Adnani was killed in a strike, Reuters reported. Cook said the Pentagon wasn’t aware of any information that supports Russian claims that its military targeted and killed Al-Adnani, but noted Russia has not devoted much, if any, effort to targeting ISIS leadership and does not regularly use precision weapons in their Syrian campaign. “If that’s changing, that would be a good thing,” Cook said. “But again we have no information at this time to support the claim that they also conducted a strike in this way.”
There is a new entrant in the highly competitive field of collaborative combat aircraft—semi-autonomous drones meant to fly alongside manned combat aircraft. Northrop Grumman unveiled its new Project Talon aircraft to a small group of reporters at the facilities of its subsidiary Scaled Composites.
