Major Islamic State commander shot dead in Sahel

The Sahel force, made up of troops from Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, announced it had killed Abu Huzeifa, considered one of the main commanders of the Islamic State.

His killing was part of an operation carried out in a tri-border area between the three Sahel countries, Malian state TV has reported.

Abu Huzeifa, a member of the Islamic State’s Sahel Province (ISGS) affiliate, was killed in the northern Malian region of Menaka on Sunday, ORTM TV said on Monday.

He had been linked to several high-profile militant raids in the region, including an attack in 2017 in which four US soldiers and a similar number of Niger troops were killed, the BBC reported.

Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger are battling a wave of Islamist insurgency, with groups linked to both IS and al-Qaeda killing thousands of people in the region in the past year.