A senior Islamic State leader has been killed in Libya in a US airstrike, the Pentagon said today.
"The Department of Defense has confirmed that Abu Nabil, aka Wissam Najm Abd Zayd al Zubaydi, an Iraqi national who was a longtime al Qaeda operative and the senior ISIL leader in Libya, is dead as a result of a U S military airstrike in Libya undertaken on November 13," Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook said.
"While not the first US strike against terrorists in Libya, this was the first US strike against an ISIL leader in Libya and it demonstrates we will go after ISIL leaders wherever they operate," Cook said in a statement.
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The Pentagon also confirmed that Abdirahman Sandhere, also known as "Ukash," a senior leader of the al Qaeda-affiliated group al-Shabaab, is dead as a result of a US airstrike in Somalia on December 2.
"Two other al Shabaab-affiliated associates were also killed in the strike that specifically targeted Abdirahman Sandhere," Cook said.
