THE BURNED OVER DISTRICT

Yesterday the US dropped a bomb on the head of ISIL/DAESH...in Libya. While it is easy to see the elimination of the leadership as a means to ending the threat of this gang, it should be noted that the means of doing so is part of what drives the anger of DAESH. Dropping bombs on another country no longer raises any eyebrows in the US, but it infuriates the sense of national sovereignty of those who are bombed.

Military leaders said Saturday that a U.S. bombing mission had killed the head of the Islamic State in Libya, in the first known American strike against the militant group outside Iraq or Syria.

The reported death of Wissam Najm Abd al Zubaydi, an Iraqi known by his nom de guerre as Abu Nabil, occurred Friday, one day after a separate U.S. air assault in Syria killed Mohammed Emwazi, the Islamic State executioner known as “Jihadi John.”

Abu Nabil is believed to have been the spokesman in a video released nine months ago in which as many as 21 handcuffed Egyptian Coptic Christians in orange jumpsuits were beheaded on a Libyan beach. “The sea you have hidden Sheikh Osama bin Laden’s body in, we swear to Allah, we will mix it with your blood,” the spokesman said before the beheadings.

The two killings of senior Islamic State combatants in as many days suggests that the United States is following through on recent vows by President Barack Obama and Defense Secretary Ash Carter to accelerate the war against the jihadist organization, starting with the dispatch of several dozen Special Operations troops to Syria in late October...

The Pentagon did not say Saturday where in Libya Abu Nabil was killed. Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, told McClatchy that two F-15 fighter jets carried out the strike. Military officials had said Friday that Jihadi John was taken out by a U.S. drone.

“Nabil’s death will degrade ISIL’s ability to meet the group’s objectives in Libya, including recruiting new ISIL members, establishing bases in Libya and planning external attacks on the United States,” Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook said in a statement.

Cook added that “this is the first U.S. strike against an ISIL leader in Libya, and it demonstrates we will go after ISIL leaders wherever they operate.”

There are no tears lost for the late Abu Nabil, but imagine for a moment what your feelings would be if another country were bombing the US with impunity in their hunt for George W Bush and his criminal gang members? For every 'Bad Guy' we bomb to the netherworld, how many replacements for him are we creating? And does anybody in the National Security establishment care or do they just see 'lifetime employment'?