Officials said the man helped facilitate a network of ISIS affiliates around the world.
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By Eric Schmitt and Helene Cooper
Jan. 26, 2023Updated 5:20 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON — Special Operations troops killed a senior Islamic State leader in a helicopter raid in a remote area of Somalia on Thursday, U.S. officials said.
An official who spoke on condition of anonymity identified the man as Bilal al-Sudani, an Islamic State leader operating in Somalia.
United States Africa Command said in a news release that the U.S. military had “conducted a successful counterterrorism operation in Somalia.”
Biden administration officials said that no civilians were injured or killed in the raid. They also said that none of the American troops involved were hurt, although one was bitten by a dog they brought with them.
In a statement on Thursday, Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III said Mr. al-Sudani “was responsible for fostering the growing presence of ISIS in Africa and for funding the group’s operations worldwide, including in Afghanistan.”
During a call with reporters Thursday afternoon, a senior administration official described Mr. al-Sudani as “a key operative and facilitator for ISIS’s global network.” The official said that the operative was killed along with 10 other Sudanese Islamic State associates.
The raid took place in a remote mountainous cave complex in northern Somalia.
The official said that the Special Operations troops were prepared to capture Mr. Al-Sudani but that the response from his associates when American troops arrived at their cave complex “resulted in his death.”
Somalia is better known as a harbor for Al Shabab, the terrorism group linked to Al Qaeda, than for the Islamic State. But Islamic State attacks have increased across Africa.
Source: nytimes.com
