A top Islamic State (ISIS) commander was killed in an air strike by the U.S.-led coalition in Syria, according to a statement released on Thursday.
Top ISIS Balkan commander Lavdrim Muhaxheri, who led the organization’s Albanians in Syria and Iraq, (aka “Abu Abdullah al Kosovo”) was killed in a coalition airstrike on June 7 near the eastern Syrian city of Mayadin, according to the report.
Muhaxheri planned an attack on an Israeli national soccer team and its fans during a November 2016 World Cup qualifier against Albania, according to Newsweek. The match was moved due to intelligence alerting authorities to the plot. That same month, 19 people were arrested in Kosovo in connection with the affair.
“He was known as the most prominent and radical ethnic Albanian fighter in Syria and was directly responsible for inciting jihadist ideology within European communities and encouraging foreign fighters to travel to ISIS-controlled territory,” the statement said.
“He was also responsible for planning numerous terrorist attacks, including the failed plot to bomb the 2016 Israel-Albania soccer match in Albania.”
In September 2014, Interpol issued a red notice for his arrest, and he was designated as an international terrorist by the United States.