Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin on Thursday said that US forces conducted a raid in northern Somalia that resulted in the killing of a senior ISIS leader, Bilal al-Sudani, in a rare US operation in the country that didn’t target al-Shabaab.
A Biden administration official quoted by The New York Times said the raid also killed 10 Sudanese ISIS associates. Both Austin and administration officials claimed no civilians were killed, but they shared few details about the raid, and the Pentagon is notorious for undercounting or simply lying about civilian casualties.
The US has launched frequent raids and airstrikes against ISIS in Syria over the past year and always claims senior leaders are killed but never offers any kind of evidence for its claims. Austin claimed that al-Sudani “was responsible for fostering the growing presence of ISIS in Africa and for funding the group’s operations worldwide, including in Afghanistan.”
The administration official said the raid was carried out by US special operations forces who planned on capturing al-Sudani, but the response from his associates “resulted in his death.” US officials said the operation took place at a cave complex in northern Somalia but didn’t get more specific than that.
The raid came as the US has been escalating its airstrikes against al-Shabaab. US Africa Command reported two airstrikes so far this month that the command claimed killed a total of 32 al-Shabaab fighters. In 2022, US airstrikes in Somalia rose by 30% as the US-backed Mogadishu-based government launched an offensive against al-Shabaab.
Similar to US operations against ISIS, there is virtually no accountability for the US air war against al-Shabaab as the conflict receives virtually no Western media coverage.
kills an ISIS leader in somalia while propping up ISIS leaders in syria
That sounds like Biden. ISIS will continue to get stronger and stronger. Our endless wars cause that to occur. Former President Trump said he’d “knock the hell out of ISIS”.
If he did that, it would be the end of ISIS, it’s not, ISIS is still around. He hasn’t knocked the hell out of ISIS, he has knocked the hell into ISIS.
How do we know this is true, and how many civilians were killed during the operation?
I feel so much safer now. And does this mean we won?
ISIS? They jyst need a convenient name for killing lical resistance. What ISIS? A project US cooked up with a close collaboratorr, Mohhamed Bin Nayaf, tgen the Minister of the Interior of SaudibArabia. US promoted his advancemebt to Crown Prince, and the hay day of future Caliohate looked real.
MBN Syria Committee envisioned Caliohate of Sunni regiins to be taken from Syria and Iraq. And aling with Kurdish statelets in Syria, Iraq and Turkey, US and Israel envisioned a string if controlled states permanently severing l transit and economy linkages between Levant, Turkey and Egypt from South Iraq and Gulf states. But then Russia intervened beating back ISIS in Central Syria, while Turkey intervened beating USIS back from the birder (Jarabulus) to Al-Bab, a critical juncture in connecting Raqqa area with Afrin.
The battle was difficult as US cllearly gave ISIS battleground information — and Turkey called it. Russia intervened to help Turkey, flying joint attack missions.
But US onlyvslightly adjusted plan — instead of ISIS controlling the border with Turkey, US oushed Kurds there.
In the meantine, joint intelligence center set up in Baghdad between Iraq, Iran and Russia coordinated
independent Irraqi offensives towards Mosul, contrary to American advisers. Independent Shia militias were formed to avoid Anerican attempts to control Iraqi “fight against terrorism”.
With this shaping — Russia and Turkey, along with Syrian and Iraqi armies were unravellung US and Saudi investment.
On the top of that, Trump runnung for president grasped that Russia, Turkey, Syria and Iraq cannot be allowed to win over ISIS, and he declared war on ISIS. Which reveals just how Obama was complicit in ISIS creation and pretend-fighting.
Saudis were in shock. Being absolutely sure that US was going to see the Caliphate through, a country where Saudi Wahhabis were leading force — the idea that an American president can just flio in a dime and leave them holding the bag was horrifying.
So much so, thata palace coup in 2017 removed MBN and installed King’s son. King himsekf — being called demented, took 2900 strong business delegation to Moscow. MBS dismantkedvWahhabi structures supporting ISIS, snd funding, directing, staffing of Cakipgate discontinued. I took about a year for remnanrmts being finished off.
Yesterday Turkey asked US — why it did not want to join them — NATO ally — fighting ISIS but instead supported anothe militancy — Kurds? Especially since Syrian Kurds depended on Turkish Kurds for support, and Turkish Kurds are declared terrorist organization? There is no answer to that , as Turkey well knows.
MBS has been target of Western smear from day one. A theatrical nurder of an unknown journalist gave excuse for full fledged attack on his legitimacy. Pressure did not
work, internally got stronger, has Russia in OPEC and comfegensive deal with China. Midern cities being built. He is now unassailable.
Saudis bristle at the suggestiin of them funding ISIS. Naturally , being burned like that ended Saudi reliance on US.
So when we still jkill ISIS or their leaders around the globe , let us remenber that Saudis killed USIS in Jyne 2017, while it lingered a bit longer until fall of Mosul and Raqqa.
ISIS is now a catch phrase for any killing of local resistance anywhere around the globe.