An air raid carried out by the US Air Force resulted in the death of an al-Qaeda member in Libya. The operation took place on Saturday and did not involve ground forces, while the country’s legal government had been informed according to protocol.

According to the Pentagon’s spokesperson, the US carried out a “counter-espionage strike against a militant connected to the Libyan al-Qaeda branch”.

In its own statement, Libya’s legal government revealed that the dead man is Mokhtar Belmokhtar, one of al-Qaeda’s leaders in “Islamic Maghreb” (AQIM). The government also stated that more terrorist-linked militants were killed in the raid, without it being verified, however.