After unconfirmed reports that Jihadi John, or Mohamed Emwazi, was killed by a U.S.-launched drone strike on the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), another leader of the terror organization appears to have also been killed on Saturday.
The New York Daily News reports that Iraqi national Abu Nabil, leader of ISIS in Libya, was hit by a strike of an F-15 fighter jet near Darnah, a port city in Libya's east. Nabil used to be a longtime member of Al Qaeda before he joined the ISIS.
Peter Cook, Pentagon spokesman, says, "Nabil's death will degrade ISIS's ability to meet the group's objectives in Libya, including recruiting new (ISIS) members, establishing bases in Libya, and planning external attacks on the United States."
It is the first U.S. strike against an ISIS leader in Libya, points out Cook. Nabil is also known as Wissam Najim Abd Zayd al Zubaydi. Nabil is believed to be the ISIS spokesman who was in the February video of the terror organization that executed captive Coptic Christians on a beach.
He adds that it shows the Coalition would go after ISIS leaders wherever they operate. The airstrikes happened hours after ISIS terrorists simultaneously attacked in Paris, killing 127 people and injuring more than 300 people.
U.S. President Barack Obama says that while Washington's strategy against the ISIS has contained the group, the U.S. has not succeeded in decapitating the organization's leaders. He points out, "They have not gained ground in Iraq and in Syria. They'll come in. They'll leave. But you don't see this systemic march by ISIL across the terrain. What we have not yet been able to do is to completely decapitate their command and control structures," quotes CNN.