The Pentagon said two senior ISIL commanders, including the man who oversaw the terror group’s offensive to capture the Iraqi city of Mosul, were killed in a US-led coalition airstrike near Mosul.

The Pentagon said two senior ISIL commanders, including the man who oversaw the terror group's offensive to capture the Iraqi city of Mosul, were killed in a US-led coalition airstrike near Mosul.

In a statement, Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook identified the two commanders Basim Muhammad Ahmad Sultan al-Bajari, the terror group's deputy minister of war, and Hatim Talib al-Hamduni, an ISIL military commander in Mosul. He said they were killed in the June 25 airstrike.

“These deaths are the latest in coalition efforts to systemically eliminate ISIL’s cabinet wherever they hide, disrupting their ability to plot external terror attacks and hold onto the territory they use to claim legitimacy,” Cook said.

“The international coalition fighting ISIL, working with local, capable and motivated forces on the ground in Iraq and Syria, continues to make sustained progress in our campaign to deal ISIL a lasting defeat,” he continued.

Bajari, a former member with al-Qaida who brought his military skills into ISIL, oversaw the June 2014 offensive to capture Mosul, and has led the Jaysh al-Dabiq battalion which is known for using vehicle-borne bombs, suicide bombers and mustard gas in its attacks, Cook said.

Hamduni was an ISIL military commander in Mosul and the head of military police for the self-proclaimed Ninawa state.

"Removing these terrorist leaders from the battlefield shapes the environment for Iraqi forces to ultimately liberate Mosul with support from the international coalition," Cook said.