Pentagon says strike’s target was Iraqi national and al-Qaida operative
US airstrike was country’s first against Isis in Libya, Pentagon notes
ajm Abd Zayd al Zubaydi, an Iraqi national who was a long-time al-Qaida operative”.
The Pentagon said Nabil’s death “will degrade [Isis’s] ability to meet the group’s objectives in Libya”.
Paris terror attacks 'carried out by three coordinated teams of gunmen'
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The news followed the suicide bomb and shooting attacks in Paris on Friday night in which, the Paris prosecutor said later on Saturday, 129 people were killed and 352 injured, 99 of them critically.
Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attacks, and a White House statement said a National Security Council briefing of President Obama “had no information to contradict the initial French assessment of [Isis] responsibility”.
In a statement on the airstrike, Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said: “This operation was authorised and initiated prior to the terrorist attack in Paris.”
Cook’s statement said: “On 13 November [Friday], the US military conducted an airstrike in Libya against Abu Nabil, [also known as] Wissam Najm Abd Zayd al Zubaydi, an Iraqi national who was a long-time al-Qaida operative and the senior [Isis] leader in Libya.”
The statement said Nabil had been killed in the strike, which US officials told Reuters was carried out by two F-15 aircraft.
“Reporting suggests [Nabil] may also have been the spokesman in the February 2015 Coptic Christian execution video,” the statement continued, referring to a video which showed the beheading of 21 Copts, most of them Egyptian, and prompted international outrage. Egypt bombed the city of Sirte, Libya, where the executions took place.
“Nabil’s death will degrade [Isis’s] ability to meet the group’s objectives in Libya,” Cook continued, “including recruiting new [Isis] members, establishing bases in Libya, and planning external attacks on the United States.
“While not the first US strike against terrorists in Libya, this is the first US strike against an [Isis] leader in Libya and it demonstrates we will go after [Isis] leaders wherever they operate.”
Read more:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/14/us-airstrike-isis-leader-libya
