On Friday morning, the lead field commander of military operations for the Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham (ISIS) at the Kuweires Military Airport in the eastern part of the Aleppo Governorate was reportedly killed by the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) during clashes between the two parties at the outskirts of the southern guard post.
The ISIS field commander – Shadi Mahmoud Al-Ahmad (native Syrian) – served the terrorist group on two different fronts and in two different countries before he ultimately met his demise at the Kuweires Military Airport – he and his squadron had been besieging the military airbase for over 90 days; however, they were unsuccessful in breaching the Syrian Arab Army’s defensive barriers.
Shadi Mahmoud Al-Ahmad began his service for the terrorist group in 2014, when ISIS stormed the provincial capital of the Nineveh Governorate in west Iraq, resulting the latter’s subsequent capture of Mosul after a brief firefight with the Iraqi Security Forces last summer – the city of Mosul is still under ISIS’ control despite the numerous counter-offensives launched by the ISF and Kurdish “Peshmerga Forces” in western Iraq.
Following his stint in Iraq, Al-Ahmad was transferred back to his native country of Syria to begin the siege of Kobane (‘Ayn Al-‘Arab), where ISIS launched a large-scale offensive to capture this predominately Kurdish city in the northeastern part of the Aleppo Governorate.
After the failed offensive at Kobane, Al-Ahmad and his contingent were redeployed to the Kuweries Military Airport in east Aleppo, where he led a large ISIS force for over 90 days.