The United States announced an airstrike has killed Abu Nibil, the senior Islamic State Group leader in Libya. Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook during his briefing confirmed that the USA air strike was authorised and even took place before the events in Paris on Friday.
Advertisement
Daesh Takfiris claimed responsibility for the attacks.
Libya remains in chaos four years after the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi, and the growth of Islamic State there has anxious Western governments.
Zubaidi, a former Iraqi policeman and Al Qaeda operative, was sent to Libya in 2014 by ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
A senior USA official said that the latest airstrike in Libya struck a command and control center near the eastern port city of Darnah and likely killed Nabil and others with him.
“There’s a lot of people around the world who call themselves ISIL”.
“But this guy (Nabil) had a no-kidding relationship back with main ISIL”.
Although these are not the first American airstrikes in Libya, they are the country’s first U.S. strike against an ISIS leader in the North African country, which Cook said “demonstrates [the US] will go after [ISIS] leaders wherever they operate”.
The report came as security forces throughout Europe were searching on Saturday for information about who carried out the assaults at seven locations in Paris on Friday night and whether they had support.
Advertisement
He added that Nabil may have been the IS spokesman pictured in a February 2015 video showing the apparent execution of Coptic Christians in Libya.
