US: Bangladeshi IS Member Killed in Airstrike in Syria

A Syria-based Bangladeshi computer systems engineer linked to the Islamic State (IS) extremist group was killed in a U.S.-led coalition airstrike near Raqqa, Syria, on Dec. 10, according to a spokesman for the military operation.

Siful Haque Sujan, an engineer who was educated in Britain, worked as an operations planner for IS, supporting its computer hacking efforts, anti-surveillance technology and weapons development programs, U.S. Army Col. Steve Warren, a Baghdad-based spokesman for Operation Inherent Resolve spokesman, announced this week.

“Now that he’s dead, ISIL has lost a key link between their networks,” Warren told reporters at the Pentagon on Tuesday, using another acronym for IS.

A series of airstrikes by the coalition, which were launched from Dec. 7 through Dec. 27, killed Sujan and nine other IS leaders, Warren said.

Among the 10 killed was Charaffe al Mouadan, a Syrian-based IS member with a direct link to Abdel Hamid Abaaoud, the leader of an IS cell that carried out the Nov. 13 terrorist attacks in Paris, which killed 130 people, Warren said.

Al Mouadan died in Syria on Christmas Eve.

Al Mouadan “was actively planning additional attacks against the West,” Warren said.

Leaders: No IS in Bangladesh

While Sujan had left Bangladesh to study in Europe and ended up in Syria, Bangladeshi leaders have continued to discount claims of IS members within their borders. In November, a court in Dhaka ordered four alleged IS agents to face trial after a prosecutor claimed investigators found books, videos and leaflets promoting the terror group. “We will show the evidence that they are IS members when the trial starts,” assistant public prosecutor A.K.M. Bashiruddin Miah told BenarNews at the time.

Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal challenged the IS claim as he has any claim regarding the organization setting up shop in his country.

Metropolitan police Joint Commissioner Monirul Islam told BenarNews that officials have seen media reports, but have no information about Sujan. He said officers are trying to verify the claim that he is from Bangladesh.

At the Pentagon, Warren promised more efforts to destroy IS, comparing it to a snake. “We have not severed the head of this snake yet, and it has still got fangs. We have to be clear about that. There’s much more fighting to do,” he said.