The finance chief of the terror group Islamic State has been killed in airstrikes by the US-led coalition, a US military spokesman said on Thursday. Muwaffaq Mustafa Mohammed al-Karmoush, also known as Abu Salah, and two other senior leaders were killed in the strikes that took place in "recent weeks". Brett McGurk, special US presidential envoy for the global coalition to counter IS, said the three were killed "as part of the coalition campaign to destroy Islamic State's financial infrastructure".

US military spokesman Colonel Steve Warren confirmed the deaths from the Iraqi capital, Baghdad. “Salah was one of the most senior and experienced members of the militant group's financial network. Killing him and his predecessors exhaust the knowledge and talent needed to co-ordinate funding within the organisation” Warren said.

The US-led coalition has been carrying out air strikes against IS militants in Iraq and Syria for more than a year now.