Islamic State leader killed in US military raid in Somalia

A key regional Islamic State leader, Bilal al-Sudani, has been killed in a military raid in Somalia ordered by President Joe Biden, Pentagon officials said Thursday.
Al-Sudani was killed in an exchange of fire after the US military infiltrated a mountainous region in northern Somalia in an attempt to capture him, officials said.
According to official figures, around 10 Sudanese ISIS accomplices were killed at the scene, there were no American casualties.
“On January 25, on the orders of the President, the US military carried out an assault operation in northern Somalia, which resulted in the deaths of a number of ISIS operatives, including Bilal al- Sudani,” US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said. “Al-Sudani was responsible for facilitating the growing presence of ISIS in Africa and funding the group’s operations around the world, including in Afghanistan.”
From a mountainous base in northern Somalia, al-Sudani coordinated funding not only for the group’s African affiliates, but also for Islamic State Khorasan, a unit operating in Afghanistan, a US administration official said. on condition of anonymity.
A decade ago, before joining ISIS, al-Sudani recruited and trained militants for the extremist al-Shabaab movement in Somalia.
“Al-Sudani played a key operational and financial role, with special skills that made him a significant target for US counterterrorism operations,” the source said.
The operation had been in the works for months, with the US military training to capture the terrorist at a special site built to replicate the terrain where al-Sudani was hiding.
Biden authorized the operation this week after consulting with senior defense, intelligence and security officials, the source said.
“The planned capture operation was ultimately determined to be the best option to maximize intelligence value and improve accuracy in difficult terrain,” another administration official said.
However, “the reaction of the forces hostile to the operation resulted in the death [аль-Судани]“, — said the source.
“President Biden has made it clear that we are committed to finding and eliminating terrorist threats against the United States and the American people, wherever they hide, however far away they may be,” the source added.