In a US military operation in northern Somalia, Bilal al-Sudani, a senior leader of the Islamic State terrorist group (ISIS), and ten other ISIS fighters were killed.
The US Special Operations Forces conducted a military raid on a cave complex in northern Somalia on Wednesday night, according to US officials.
According to the New York Times, the raid’s target was Bilal al Sudani, who officials described as a key operative and facilitator of the terror group’s global network.
In a statement, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said al-Sudani was “responsible for fostering ISIS’s growing presence in Africa and funding the group’s operations worldwide, including in Afghanistan.”
President Joe Biden was said to have ordered the operation after Austin and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley recommended it.
Officials stated that no civilians were injured or killed during the operation, but they did not identify any of the 10 others killed other than to say they were ISIS operatives.
The only injury reported by officials was a U.S. service member who was bitten by one of the American military service dogs, according to the report.
The operation, which took place in a mountainous area of northern Somalia, was the result of months of planning, according to officials.
“[There were] extensive rehearsals of the operation itself by our military forces,” one senior administration official said, “including at sites specifically built to recreate the terrain where the operation ultimately needed to take place … [T]he actual execution [was] careful, precise and effective.”
The operation yielded some intelligence, but the senior administration officials declined to provide specifics.
“Our intelligence community expects to glean valuable information from this operation as well, demonstrating our continued emphasis on maximizing intelligence collection,” one official said.