U.S. Airstrike Kills Islamic State Governor, Iraqi Official Claims

Iraqi officials are claiming that the Islamic State-appointed Governor of Mosul was killed in a recent U.S.-led airstrike, although the U.S. has yet to confirm the killing.

Hassan Hassan Saeed al-Jabouri, who had only been mayor of the large Iraqi city for 25 days, was allegedly killed outside of the city this past week, Maj. Gen. Watheq Al-Hamdani, an Iraqi police commander, told CNN.

The U.S. has yet to confirm the recent killing, which would serve as another win for the U.S.-led airstrikes in Iraq and Syria that have been criticized by some in the U.S. for not being strong enough in defeating the growing Islamic State terrorist group.

Mosul is the second largest city in Iraq, and made international headlines earlier this year when it was taken over by the Islamic State, forcing tens of thousands of Christian minority residents to flee the town as the terrorist group began establishing strict Shariah law.

Earlier in December, the U.S. announced that airstrikes had successfully killed three top leaders of the Islamic State, including a top military commander and a key deputy. The airstrikes, conducted daily in the first week of December, failed to kill Islamic State senior commander Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

"We've made significant progress in halting that (militant) offensive," U.S. Lieutenant General James Terry said at a press conference announcing the success of the airstrikes.

Some former Pentagon officials have cautioned against the effectiveness of the airstrikes, arguing that they are not frequent enough to inflict real damage on the terrorist group.