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Australian defense minister unable to name IS leader

Xinhua, April 15, 2015 Adjust font size:

Australia's Defense Minister Kevin Andrews was unable to name the leader of the Islamic State during a televised TV interview Tuesday night.

The gaffe was widely reported on Wednesday and came on the same day the Australian government committed another 330 troops to help train Iraqi forces battling the IS.

Andrews was asked several times by the host of an Australian Broadcasting Corporation news program to identify the terror group 's head.

But he repeatedly avoided answering. "I'm not going to go into operational matters," he said.

The host pointed out that IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was widely known and the United States has placed a 10-million-U.S. dollar bounty on his head.

But Andrews could not name him when asked a third and fourth time. Endi