An Al-Qaeda (AQ)-linked jihadist group has confirmed the killing of AQIM operative, Musa Abu Dawud in U.S. airstrike in Libya.
The American Forces killed Musa Abu Dawud, a high-ranking Al-Qaeda leader and operative in Libya in a drone strike conducted last week.
US Africa Command (AFRICOM) confirmed of the air raids that took southwestern corner of Libya which borders Algerian, Niger, and Chad on March 24. AFRICOM announced that Dawud and another jihadist were killed.
AFRICOM report indicate that Dawud was an established jihadist who had been in the fight for at least three decades.
The US State Department formally added Dawud in the list of Specially Designated Global Terrorist in May 2016. They indicated that Dawud began engaging in terrorist activity as early as 1992.
Dawud rose in the ranks of Algeria’s jihadist movement and becoming a senior leader in the Salafist Group for Call and Combat (GSPC). The group later merged with Al-Qaeda in 2007 and changed its name to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).
In 2012, Dawud was named AQIM’s commander for the southern zone and was responsible for multiple terrorist attacks in Algeria and Tunisia, according to State report.
In 2016, the U.S. military carried out nearly 500 airstrikes against an ISIS enclave in the coastal city of Sirte, Libya.
