The US kills an ISIS high command in an operation in Somalia

The Pentagon building in Arlington, Virginia (USA). CARLOS BARRIA (Reuters)

Bilal al Sudani, considered a senior Islamic Army (ISIS) official, and ten of his associates have been killed by the US Army in an operation in Somalia.

The intervention, in a mountainous area with abundant caves in the north of the country, took place on Wednesday and had the approval of the president of the United States, Joe Biden, according to a statement from Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.

There were no casualties among civilians or among US forces.

“Al Sudani was responsible for fueling ISIS's growing presence in Africa and financing the group's operations around the world, including in Afghanistan.

This action strengthens the security of the United States and its partners and reflects our unwavering commitment to protect Americans against the threats of terrorism, both at home and abroad," the Pentagon chief said in a statement.

Although Austin's statement did not specify the death toll in the operation, senior officials who spoke on condition of anonymity said that ten other terrorists died along with Al Sudani.

The operation prepared for "several months", during which US forces repeatedly rehearsed the assault, in locations specially prepared to mimic the area where they had located Al Sudani in northern Somali.

The initial idea was to capture the terrorist, although the hostile response the soldiers encountered, according to senior officials, resulted in the deaths.

The officials did not say how many US servicemen were involved in the assault or how exactly it was carried out.

They also did not offer details about the intelligence obtained, or what precise type of direct threat Al Sudani posed to the United States.

Biden gave his approval to the operation this week after receiving the recommendation in that regard from Austin and the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley.

The US president "has made it very clear that we are determined to locate and eliminate all terrorist threats against the United States and the American people wherever they are, even in the most remote places," a senior official explained.

The dispatch of commandos to the area highlights the importance that Washington attached to Al Sudani.

This operation is the most far-reaching against Islamic terrorists since the death of the head of Al Qaeda, Ayman al Zawahiri, in Afghanistan last August.

In that case, the US forces resorted to a drone that dropped an explosive charge, a less risky method than the one used in Somalia.

Prior to joining ISIS, the Treasury Department had imposed sanctions on Al Sudani for his role in the Islamic terrorist group Al Shabab in the Horn of Africa.

Al Sudani, according to Washington, helped foreign fighters to reach training camps of that extremist organization and financed their activities in the area.

Although Al Shabab, an organization linked to Al Qaeda, has been the main terrorist group in the Horn of Africa for decades, the Islamic Army has gradually expanded its influence in that region and in West Africa.

From its bases in Mali and Burkina Faso, it now also threatens countries like Benin, Togo and the Ivory Coast.

"We thank the extraordinary members of our military, as well as our intelligence community and other partners from other government entities for their support of this successful counterterrorism operation," Austin said in his statement.

On Monday, US forces had participated, at the request of the Government in Mogadishu, in an operation led by the Somali Army against Al Shabab militants in a remote area in the center of the country, some 400 kilometers northeast of the capital.

At least two enemy combatants were killed in that action.

Last week, in a similar operation also north of Mogadishu, about thirty members of Al Shabab died, according to the United States Military Command in Africa (Africom).

The United States has been involved in military operations against that terrorist organization in Somalia, a country it considers key to the stability of East Africa, since at least 2007. Although President Donald Trump announced the departure of US soldiers in 2020, after their arrival to the White House Biden raised the return of "less than 500" soldiers to that nation.

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