The U.S. military carried out a counterterrorism operation on Jan. 25 in Somalia that killed multiple ISIS terrorists, among them Bilal-al-Sudani, according to the Pentagon.
Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin said that al-Sudani, who is an ISIS leader in Somalia and a key facilitator for ISIS’s global network, “was responsible for fostering the growing presence of ISIS in Africa and for funding the group’s operations worldwide, including in Afghanistan.”
“No civilians were harmed as a result of this operation,” he added. “We are grateful to our extraordinary service members as well as our intelligence community and other interagency partners for their support to this successful counterterrorism operation.”
“Given the remote location of the operation, the assessment is that no civilians were injured or killed. Protecting civilians remains a vital part of the command’s operations to promote greater security for all Africans,” the announcement reads.
Abadigga had been recruiting young men in South Africa and sent them to a weapons training camp. He also used his position to extort money from members of two mosques in South Africa and sent the funds via a hawala to ISIS supporters in other places in Africa.
Al-Sudani had originally been designated by the Treasury Department in 2012 for his role with al-Shabab, another terrorist organization operating in Somalia.