Abu Mohammad al-Adnani

Abu Mohammad al-Adnani al-Shami (Arabic: أبو محمد العدناني), whose original name was Taha Subhi Falaha, is the official spokesman and a senior leader of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, and its primary conduit for communicating official messages. He is also the emir of ISIL in Syria.

Early life
Al-Adnani was born in 1977 in the town of Binnish in the Aleppo countryside of the Idlib Governorate, in western Syria. His mother was Khadija Hamed. He lived in the Haditha district of Anbar Province in western Iraq.

Islamist activities
Al-Adnani was reportedly one of the first foreign fighters to oppose Coalition forces in Iraq. In May 2005 he was arrested by the Coalition forces in Al Anbar Governorate in Iraq under a fake name “Yasser Khalaf Hussein Nazal al-Rawi”, and was released in 2010. In December 2012, an Iraqi intelligence official said he was using a number of aliases including “Abu Mohamed al-Adnani, Taha al-Banshi, Jaber Taha Falah, Abu Baker al-Khatab and Abu Sadek al-Rawi.”

On 15 August 2014, the United Nations Security Council approved his addition to the Al-Qaida Sanctions Committee’s list of individuals and entities subject to the targeted financial sanctions and the arms embargo set out in paragraph 1 of Security Council resolution 2161 (2014), adopted under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations.

On 18 August 2014, the US State Department listed al-Adnani as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist.

On 22 September 2014, al-Adnani released an important speech entitled 'Indeed Your Lord Is Ever Watchful', which was very significant as being the first official instruction by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant for its supporters to kill disbelievers in Western countries. Al-Adnani said in his speech:

"If you can kill a disbelieving American or European – especially the spiteful and filthy French – or an Australian, or a Canadian, or any other disbeliever from the disbelievers waging war, including the citizens of the countries that entered into a coalition against the Islamic State, then rely upon Allah, and kill him in any manner or way however it may be. Smash his head with a rock, or slaughter him with a knife, or run him over with your car, or throw him down from a high place, or choke him, or poison him."