A U.S. airstrike killed an Islamic State operative in Mosul, Iraq, this month, the Pentagon announced Monday.
Ali Awni al-Harzi was also a person of interest in the 2011 attack on the Benghazi diplomatic post that killed Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans.
Al-Harzi was killed in an airstrike June 15, according to a statement from Pentagon spokesman Col. Steve Warren. He was an “organizational intermediary” for the Islamic State, also known as ISIL.
“Al-Harzi operated closely with multiple ISIL-associated extremists throughout North Africa and the Middle East,” Col. Warren said. “His death degrades ISIL’s ability to integrate North African jihadists into the Syrian and Iraqi fight and removes a jihadist with long ties to international terrorism.”
Al-Harzi was killed just a week after a U.S. strike in Yemen killed Nasir al-Wuhayshi, al-Qaeda’s second in command and leader of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Another U.S. strike in Libya this month killed Mokhtar Belmokhtar, a member of al Qaeda and the mastermind behind a 2013 attack in Algeria that killed 40 hostages.
• Jacqueline Klimas can be reached at jklimas@washingtontimes.com.
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