BAGHDAD — Iraqi forces in coordination with U.S.-backed Syrian forces have captured five senior Islamic State group leaders, the U.S.-led coalition said Thursday in a statement.
The arrest was a “significant blow to Daesh,” coalition spokesman Army Col. Ryan Dillon said, using the Arabic acronym for the extremist group.
A Pentagon spokesman, Marine Maj. Adrian J.T. Rankine-Galloway, said the U.S. credited Iraqi security forces with the militants’ capture “on the Iraq-Syria border.”
“These arrests are a significant blow to ISIS as we continue to remove its leadership and fighters from the battlefield,” Rankine-Galloway said.
IS fighters no longer control significant pockets of territory inside Iraq, but do maintain a grip inside Syria along Iraq’s border.
HUNTINGDON, Pa. — A 114-year-old Pennsylvania woman who was the oldest person in the United States has died, according to a funeral home.
The Robert D Heath Funeral Home in Mount Union said that Delphine Gibson died Wednesday.
Lessie Brown, of Cleveland Heights, Ohio, 113, is now believed to be the oldest American, according to the Gerontology Research Group in Sandy Springs, Georgia.
Gibson, who had been living at a Huntingdon nursing home since 2004, when she was 100, attributed her long life to good food, her faith in God and her church.
“Frances and I are saddened to hear of the passing of Delphine Gibson, America’s oldest citizen,” said Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf.
“She was an incredible Pennsylvanian and she will be missed.”
From Associated Press