The US-led coalition's airstrikes have killed at least 10 leaders of the Islamic State group in December. The 10 dead Isis members also include those who allegedly had links with the mastermind of last month's Paris attacks.
"Over the past month, we've killed 10 ISIL leadership figures with targeted air strikes, including several external attack planners, some of whom are linked to the Paris attacks," Reuters quoted Baghdad-based US military spokesman Colonel Steve Warren as saying.
French national Charaffe el Mouadan and Abdul Qader Hakim were the leaders who had links with the Islamic extremist group's network behind the 13 November Paris attacks that killed at least 130 people. While Mouadan was killed on 24 December airstrike, Hakim died in northern Iraqi city of Mosul on 26 December.
According to the officials, Mouadan had close links with both Abdelhamid Abaaoud -- the alleged mastermind of Paris attacks -- and one of the suicide bombers, Samy Amimour. However, AFP's French sources told the agency that there were no evidence to establish Mouadan's links to Paris attacks
"He was a Syrian-based ISIL member with a direct link to Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the Paris attacks cell leader," AFP quoted Warren as saying. Abaaoud died on 18 November in a police raid.
Warren said that Mouadan was plotting further attacks against the West.
The death of Hakim -- an "external operations facilitator" -- "removes an important facilitator with many connections in Europe," Warren told AFP.
Siful Haque Sujan was another Isis leader who was killed on 10 December in Raqqa in Syria. He was from Bangladesh and studied in Britain. He was also allegedly an Isis hacker.
Other leaders who were killed in the airstrikes in Syria and Iraq include Khalil Ahmad Ali al-Wais, Rawand Dilsher Taher, Abu Anas, Yunis Khalash, Mithaq Najim, Akram Muhammad Sa'ad Faris and Tashin al-Hayali.
The Pentagon sees this as another step towards victory over the jihadist extremist group after its defeat in Ramadi, Iraq. The Syrian military on Sunday announced that they had recaptured Ramadi after a week-long fight against the Isis.
