Story highlights US defense official says drone strike targeted new ISIS official in charge of media and propaganda

The strike comes weeks after the US confirmed it had killed ISIS' spokesman

Washington (CNN) Just weeks after ISIS suffered a major loss when its chief spokesman was taken out in an air attack, the US announced it had killed his close associate in a strike.

The US targeted ISIS leader Wael Adel Salman, aka Abu Muhammed Furqan, in a September 7 airstrike, Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said in a statement issued Friday.

The strike took out one of the very limited number of ISIS leaders who had "direct access" to Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi, the leader of ISIS, according to a US official. The US conducted the strike using a drone, hitting him on a motorcycle just outside a house in Raqqa, ISIS's self-declared capital, the official added.

Cook called Salman one of the "most senior leaders" in ISIS.

"He operated as the minister of Information for the terror organization and was a prominent member of its Senior Shura Council -- ISIL's leadership group," Cook added, using the government's preferred acronym for the terror group.

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