Paris attacks: IS commanders 'killed in US-led strikes'

Abaaoud was killed in a police raid in a Paris suburb just days after the attacks in the city

Targeted US-led coalition air strikes have killed 10 Islamic State commanders in Iraq and Syria in the past month, a US military spokesman has said.

Some were linked to last month's attacks in Paris and planning further attacks on the West, US Army Colonel Steve Warren added.

He named one as Charaffe al-Mouadan, who he said had a direct link to Paris attack cell leader Abdelhamid Abaaoud.

The US-led coalition has been targeting IS in Iraq and Syria for over a year.

Russia recently began its own air attacks against armed opponents of the Syrian government, including IS.

Mouadan was killed in an air strike on 24 December, said Col Warren. Abaaoud, a Belgian national, was killed in a police raid in a Paris suburb just days after the attacks in the city which killed 130 people.

Col Warren added that that another air strike, on 10 December, killed a UK-educated Bangladeshi computer systems engineer who had supported IS hacking activities, anti-surveillance technology and weapons development.

"Over the past month we've killed 10 Isil [IS] leadership figures with targeted air strikes, including several external attack planners, some of whom are linked to the Paris attacks," he said.

"Others had designs on further attacking the West.

"As long as Isil external attack planners are operating, the US military will hunt them and kill them."