Iraq's Defense Ministry said on Wednesday that Abu Alaa al-Afari was targeted in an airstrike on a mosque near Tal Afar in northern Iraq where he was meeting other militants.

Local media report that Afari was an aide to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a former leader of a precursor of the ISIS group.

Last month, a British newspaper reported that the leader of the ISIS group had been seriously wounded in a airstrike in March. The Guardian reported Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was not able to resume day-to-day control of the group.