A senior ISIS leader was killed in northern Somalia as a result of US military operation, according to US officials.
Bilal al-Sudani, a US-designated ISIL leader in Somalia and “key facilitator for ISIS’s global network,” was reportedly killed in the operation, according to a statement by Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin on Thursday.
Other information concerning the operation was not provided, including how the US military carried out the operation or even how many US soldiers took part.
Ten of al-Sudani’s accomplices were also killed in the operation, US officials said during a teleconference on Thursday with reporters.
“We had prepared for the possibility of capturing Sudani, but the hostile forces’ response to the operation resulted in his death,” the State Department said.
Before he joined ISIS, in 2012, the US Department of Treasury imposed sanctions on al-Sudani for his assistance in arranging funding for foreign militants to travel to an al-Shabab training base.
