The U.S. military has killed Bilal al-Sudani, a key Daesh facilitator, along with 10 other terrorist operatives in an "assault operation" in northern Somalia, Washington announced Thursday.
U.S. forces had sought to capture al-Sudani during the operation, which was described as taking place in a "mountainous cave complex," but he was killed during the ensuing hostilities Wednesday night, a senior White House official said.
Al-Sudani was previously placed under U.S. sanctions in 2012 when he was affiliated with Somalia's al-Shabab terrorist group, which included “helping foreign fighters to travel to an al-Shabab training camp and facilitating financing for foreign violent extremists in Somalia."
He is believed to have "supported Daesh’s expansion and activities across Africa and beyond the continent," including the "lethal," Daesh Khorasan branch in Afghanistan.
The planning for the raid took place over several months and involved multiple U.S. government agencies, according to a White House official. The Pentagon briefed President Joe Biden on the operation last week and the commander-in-chief signed off on it earlier this week.
"Through this operation and others, President Biden has made it very clear that we are committed to finding and eliminating terrorist threats to the United States and to the American people wherever they are hiding, no matter how remote," the official said.
"The United States and our allies and partners are safer today as a result of this operation yesterday, and the president will continue to take all necessary steps to protect the United States and its interests around the world from terrorist threats where they exist," he added.
No U.S. military personnel were killed, but one service member was injured by a U.S. military dog. No civilians were killed or injured, according to the officials.
In November last year, the U.S. Central Command confirmed the U.S. military forces in northwestern Syria killed Abu al-Hassan al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi the month before, who at the time was the leader of the terrorist group.
Later, the group selected Abu al-Hussein al-Husseini al-Quraishi to replace him, a spokesperson announced, without elaborating.
Somalia's population of roughly 16 million people has been shaken by terrorist attacks and other acts of violence for years, especially by the terrorist militia al-Shabab.
Daesh announced Abu al-Hassan al-Hashemi al-Quraishi as its new leader in March 2022 after the death of its predecessor Abu Ibrahim al-Hashemi al-Quraishi.
The latter al-Quraishi was the brother of slain former Daesh head Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, according to two Iraqi security officials and one Western security source.
Both al-Quraishi and al-Baghdadi died by blowing themselves and their family members up during U.S. raids on their hideouts in northern Syria.
The Daesh terrorist group emerged from the chaos of the civil war in neighboring Syria last decade and took over vast swathes of Iraq and Syria in 2014.
Al-Baghdadi declared a self-proclaimed "caliphate" from a mosque in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul that year and proclaimed himself "caliph" of all Muslims.
Daesh's brutal rule, during which it killed and executed thousands of people in the name of its perverted interpretation of religion, came to an end in Mosul when Iraqi and international forces defeated the group there in 2017.
Its remaining thousands of militants have mostly hidden out in remote territory in recent years but are still able to carry out significant insurgent-style attacks.
