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US military kills ISIS leader Bilal al

2023-01-26T23:03:22.265Z


The US has conducted a military operation against the "Islamic State" in Somalia. The mission had been planned for months - originally the high-ranking IS leader Bilal al-Sudani was only supposed to be arrested.


US forces have killed one of the region's key leaders of the IS terrorist militia in Somalia.

The operation in the north of the country led to the death of Bilal al-Sudani and around ten other supporters of the extremists, the White House said.

Al-Sudani was a "key actor and mediator for the global network" of the IS.

Before he joined IS, he worked for the Islamist terrorist militia Al-Shabaab.

The US government did not give any specific details about the nature of the military operation.

No civilians killed

US soldiers or civilians were not killed or seriously wounded in the operation, the US State Department said.

The aim of the operation was actually to capture al-Sudani.

However, this was ultimately not possible because of the "reaction of the enemy forces".

The deployment itself had been extensively rehearsed by the US armed forces in advance.

"This action makes the United States and our partners more secure and reflects our unwavering commitment to protecting Americans from the threat of terrorism at home and abroad," Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said in a statement.

Months of planning the mission

President Joe Biden was briefed last week on the proposed mission, which came about after months of planning.

He gave his final approval for the operation to go ahead this week, according to two officials who told reporters about the operation on condition of anonymity.

The USA supports Somalia in the fight against Islamists with drones, among other things.

The crisis state on the Horn of Africa with around 16 million inhabitants has been rocked by terrorist attacks and other acts of violence for years, especially by Al-Shabaab.

Almost a year ago, the US military killed the then IS leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Kurashi in Syria.

tfb/dpa

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2023-01-26

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