U.S. cannot confirm that ISIS second-in-command killed in airstrike

The U.S. military on Wednesday strongly denied claims by Iraq's government that a coalition air strike hit a mosque where the deputy commander of ISIS insurgents had been meeting other insurgents in the north of the country.

The U.S. military's Central Command, in a statement, also said it had no information to corroborate reporting about Iraqi claims that the militant leader, Abu Alaa al-Afari, had been killed in such a strike.

Earlier on Wednesday, Iraq's Defence Ministry said the deputy commander of ISIS insurgents, Abu Alaa al-Afari had been killed in a coalition air strike on a mosque where he was meeting with other militants in the north of the country.

Abu Alaa al-Afari, whose real name is Abdul Rahman Mustafa Mohammed, is an ethnic Turkmen from the town of Tel Afar in northwestern Iraq, and is thought to be second in command of ISIS under self-proclaimed caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.