ISIL media outlets have announced the killing of Shehata al-Masry, the group’s Movie director, in an airstrike on a main road near al-Ba'aj, West of Mosul, along with two of his aides, Al Sumeriya reported.
Though Al-Masry was not well-known before joining ISIS, he seemed to have been an important personality working in the shadow for the terror outfit.
ISIL is known to have recruited several people with expertise from around the world to tap into their experience in its psychological war. The group has relied on films and video clips adopting the style of American thriller movies to deliver its messages.
The group has also ceased its paper propaganda in the city of Mosul, Nineveh, in an apparent sign of the group’s diminishing presence there resulting from defeats to Iraq security forces.
Al Sumeriya News also found that the group had halted its paper propaganda completely, pointing out almost certain information about ISIL transferred some of its largest printing presses out of the city.
Propaganda tolls for ISIS, which included a magazine and other weekly or monthly leaflets ceased to issue any more. That paper propaganda was one of the tools ISIL relied upon to deliver their messages to the people of Mosul over the past months.
The revelation comes as the Iraqi Army forces and their allies including Hashd al-Shaabi forces continue to push with their weeks-old operation to liberate Mosul, ISIL last stronghold in Iraq. The operation has reportedly forced the group’s fighters to smuggle their families out of the city.
ISIS most outstanding magazine was Dabiq, a magazine in English and Arabic, both in a paper and an online 50-page edition, FNA reported.
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