REPORT: ISIS just executed its top official in Mosul for planning a coup

Militants from the Islamic State parading down a main street in Mosul, Iraq, in a commandeered Iraqi security forces armored vehicle.

Reports have emerged that ISIS has executed one of its top administrative officials in Iraq's second-largest city of Mosul for planning a coup against the extremist group.

The Iraq Press news outlet first reported the incident on Monday, saying ISIS had executed Abu Usman al-Hassan — one of the group's commanders and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's representative in the city — on charges of conspiracy, prompting a number of Syrian and Arab fighters to withdraw toward Raqqa in protest of the execution. 

"ISIS executed the commander inside Mosul after severe disagreements between him and a number of other commanders," an eyewitness told the outlet. 

"He was accused of conspiring against the 'caliphate state.'"

Meanwhile, a Kurdish official responsible for Mosul affairs described Hassan as a member of ISIS' Mosul Shura Council and one of the top commanders in the city, which the group seized in June 2014.

"He was accused of conspiracy and the ruling against him was put in to action in the Ghazlani Base to the west of Mosul," Saad Mamuzin, the head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party's (KDP) branch for Mosul said.  

Mamuzin added that disagreements over distribution of posts and money in the city were the reason behind the execution and had caused confrontations between members of ISIS.

The Erbil-based ARA News also covered the story, reporting that the Mosul official was executed "following rifts between foreign and local [ISIS] militants."  

The outlet quoted local sources as saying he was a "prominent leader and close friend to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi."

The Institute for the Study of War

ARA news echoed the Iraq Press account that Hassan had been killed for "plotting against the Caliphate"; however, the report said the men under the official's command had been transferred to Raqqa and had not left in protest of his execution.

"Subsequent to the execution of the senior leader Abu Usman Hassan, the group sent nearly 250 fighters, mostly Syrians and from other Arab nationalities, to Raqqa — IS' de facto capital in Syria," a source told the outlet. 

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