US airstrikes carried out on Friday have killed the leader of the Islamic State in Libya, Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook said in a statement on Saturday.
The airstrikes targeted Wisam al-Zubaidi, an Iraqi national and “longtime al-Qaeda operative” and ISIS’ senior leader in Libya, according to the Pentagon statement.
The attack had been planned for some time and was authorized and initiated prior to the Paris terror attacks that left at least 120 dead on Friday night, Cook said.
Although these are not the first American airstrikes in Libya, they are the country’s first US strike against an ISIS leader in the North African country, which Cook said “demonstrates [the US] will go after [ISIS] leaders wherever they operate”.
This story is developing.
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