“We assess Shishani is dead as a result of strike against him,” the Pentagon press office told USA TODAY in an email.
The word came almost 24 hours after the first reports circulated that al-Shishani was clinically dead and unable to breathe on his own.
Initially, al-Shishani was reported to have died in a U.S. airstrike a week ago, but later reports indicated he was initially injured and died later.
Twelve other ISIL fighters died in the wave of strikes by drones and manned aircraft, CNN reported on Monday.
Al-Shishani was a meeting with other ISIL operatives at the time of the strike, according to CNN.
Earlier Monday, the Guardian quoted a figure in the international community saying that al-Shishani was clinically dead after the strike.
"Shishani is not able to breathe on his own and is using machines," Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told the Guardian on Sunday. "He has been clinically dead for several days."
Al-Shishani was one of Washington's most-wanted ISIL leaders and there was a $5 milllion bounty on his head, the Guardian reports.
He is from the Pankisi Gorge in the former Soviet state of Georgia.
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