Emmanuel Macron
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France Kills ISIS Head Behind Deaths of US Troops and French Charity Workers

French President Emmanuel Macron announced French forces have “neutralized” an ISIS leader responsible for killing four U.S. troops in a 2017 ambush attack and ordering the 2020 killings of six French charity workers.

France kills ISIS leader responsible for deadly ambush attack on US troops, French charity workers

France’s President Emmanuel Macron announced that French forces had successfully “neutralized” ISIS leader Adnan Abu Walid al-Sahrawi, the head of ISIS in the Greater Sahara, overnight.

French officials labeled al-Sahrawi “enemy No. 1” in the anti-terrorism efforts in the region, NBC reported.

“This is another major success in our fight against terrorist groups in the Sahel,” Macron said, as Fox reported.

Macron said the ISIS militant leader was responsible for a 2017 attack that killed four U.S. and five Nigerien troops and a 2020 attack that killed six French charity workers and their driver.

Macron tweeted a photo of the ISIS leader al-Sahrawi with a caption reading: “Ladies and Gentlemen: We got him!!”

“The militant leader, Adnan Abu Walid al-Sahraoui, oversaw a group that claimed responsibility for an attack in 2017 that killed four American soldiers who were on patrol with Nigerien forces,” The Daily Wire reported, quoting the NY Times. “And in August 2020, Mr. Al-Sahraoui personally ordered the killing of six French charity workers and their Nigerian driver.”

Macron offered few details about the French military action.

“This is another major success in our fight against terrorist groups in the Sahel,” Macron wrote in a tweet. “The Nation is thinking this evening of all its heroes who died for France in the Sahel in the Serval and Barkhane operations, of the bereaved families, of all of its wounded. Their sacrifice is not in vain. With our African, European and American partners, we will continue this fight.”

ISIS leader had claimed responsibility for 2017 ambush

al-Sahraoui claimed responsibility on the ISIS group’s behalf for the 2017 ambush attack in the Tong Tongo region of Niger, the New York Times reported.

In 2017, a 12-member US Army special forces unit was accompanying 30 Nigerien troops during a mission to capture or kill a high-level terror leader in West Africa. They came under an ambush attack where they were outnumbered by over 100 extremists carrying small arms, the Times reported. In the ambush, four American soldiers, including two Green Berets were killed along with five Nigerien soldiers.

The US-based Rewards for Justice had placed a $5 million bounty for information on Adnan Abu Walid al-Sahrawi.