IS commander 'Omar the Chechen' dead, US confirms

Omar al-Shishani was one of the IS leaders most wanted by Washington, which put a $5 million bounty on his head

A top Islamic State group commander known as "Omar the Chechen" is dead after suffering injuries in a US-led coalition strike in northeastern Syria, the Pentagon has confirmed.

Yesterday's announcement would appear to clear up the fate of the notorious Omar al-Shishani, a week after a US official said the most-wanted militant had been targeted in a March 4 attack on the jihadist's convoy.

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"We believe he subsequently died of his injuries," Navy Captain Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, told AFP.

On Sunday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said Shishani had been 'clinically dead' for several days.

Shishani, the nom de guerre of Tarkhan Batirashvili, was one of the IS leaders most wanted by Washington, which put a $5 million bounty on his head.