A dozen other people linked to the terrorist organization were killed Wednesday in this American raid.
MO12345lemonde with AP and AFP
Washington pursues its policy of anti-terrorist fight beyond its borders. A head of the Islamic State group, identified as Bilal Al-Soudani, and “around ten people” linked to the terrorist organization, were thus killed on Wednesday January 25, in an American raid in Somalia, the American executive said .
“Al-Soudani was responsible for encouraging the growing presence of the Islamic State group in Africa and funding its operations around the world, including in Afghanistan,” said the Secretary of Defense on Thursday 26 , Lloyd Austin.
“This action makes the United States and their partners safer and more secure, and it reflects our unshakable commitment to protecting Americans from the threat of terrorism at home and abroad,” he adds.
No civilian victim
This operation prepared for “several months”, has not made any victim in the civilian population or among the American soldiers, said a senior White House official during an interview with journalists. She declared that the raid had been preceded by “intensive rehearsals” of American forces, on “specifically constructed” sites to imitate the ground where it took place, a cave in the mountains of northern Somalia.
“We were ready to capture Al-Soudani,” she said. “A capture [of jihadist] was the best option to get as much information as possible,” said another American official. But “the response of enemy forces led to his death”.
The American president, Joe Biden, was informed last week of the proposed mission and gave his final approval to carry out the operation. The president “Biden said very clearly that we were determined to find and eliminate all terrorist threats against the United States and against the American people, wherever they are, even in the most remote places”, said a Another manager of the White House.
The American army, which has a base in Djibouti, has been carrying out operations in Somalia for several years, in cooperation with the Somali regular army and on behalf of the government. These are mainly air strikes against radical Islamists Chabab, linked to Al-Qaeda, carried out from abroad, but it also leads land operations in the country, between two and four per year.
Last August, Al Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri, had been killed on his balcony in Afghanistan with an American drone strike.