It’s Official: The U.S. Has Killed the Top ISIS Leader in Libya

ISIS takes another airstrike to the chin. 

The Pentagon confirmed on Monday that Abu Nabil, the Islamic State’s senior leader in Libya, was pulverized by an  F-15 during a U.S. airstrike last month. 

The strike, which was carried out Nov. 13, marked the first time the U.S. had directly targeted members of ISIS outside of Iraq and Syria. And it probably won’t be the last, as ISIS has been expanding its operations in war-torn Libya , where it now controls the coastal city of Sirte.

Nabil was representative of the Islamic State’s migratory nature: He was an Iraqi national who once  belonged to al-Qaeda before shifting allegiances and relocating to eastern Libya, where ISIS now runs training camps for fighters preparing to deploy to Syria. 

According to the Times, American and British special forces soldiers were recently deployed to Libya to begin intelligence-gathering operations there as the Islamic State strengthen its hold. There are currently about 3,000 ISIS fighters in the country, and attempts by local forces to drive them out have thus far been highly unsuccessful.