WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The US Defense Department has vowed to go after Islamic State (ISIL) leaders wherever they operate, Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said Saturday.
14 November 2015, 16:30 GMT
On Friday, a US airstrike in Libya allegedly killed a senior ISIL official, Abu Nabil, who Washington suspects to have played part in the February 2015 execution of 21 Coptic Christians.
"While not the first U.S. strike against terrorists in Libya, this is the first U.S. strike against an ISIL leader in Libya and it demonstrates we will go after ISIL leaders wherever they operate," Cook stressed.
The Pentagon hopes that the death of Nabil, an Iraqi national with al-Qaeda past, will degrade Islamists' ability to meet their objectives in Libya, including recruiting new members, establishing bases, and planning external attacks on the United States.