A French drone strike killed the leader of the Islamic State group in the Greater Sahara, believed to be the mastermind of attacks in Niger that claimed the lives of four U.S. soldiers in 2017 and six French aid workers last year

French President Emmanuel Macron announced the death of Adnan Abu Walid al-Sahrawi overnight calling him “enemy No. 1” in protracted anti-terrorism efforts in the region.

“[Adnan Abu Walid al-Sahrawi], leader of the terrorist group Islamic State in the Greater Sahara was neutralised by French forces,” French President Emmanuel Macron said in a tweet on Thursday.

According to Macron’s office, al-Sahrawi personally ordered the killing of six French aid workers and their Nigerien colleagues last year, and his group was behind a 2017 attack that killed U.S. and Niger military personnel.

The August operation, which was months in the making, with drone strikes and commando assaults in a lawless region on the border between Mali and Niger, targeted Adnan Abu Walid al-Sahrawi, the leader of the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara.

“His death deals a decisive blow to the leadership of the Islamic State in the Sahel,” France’s armed forces minister, Florence Parly, told a news conference on Thursday, referring to the arid region south of the Sahara Desert. “They will without a doubt have trouble replacing him.”

Al Quaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri appeared in a video commemorating the 20-year anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks despite rumors that he died months earlier. In the video, titled “Jerusalem Will Not be Judaized,” al-Zawahiri displayed knowledge of events that had taken place since last November, when rumors of his death began to emerge. She mentioned how he referenced a January 2021 raid of a Russian military base in Syria by Hurras al-Deen, a group aligned with al Qaeda.

”Amid rumors of his death, Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri shown in a new 60-minute video, this time offering some evidence that he is not dead articularly, reference to events after December when rumors of death surfaced,” Katz continued.

Katz also noted how al-Zawahiri made no mention of a Taliban victory in Afghanistan and spoke only of U.S. forces making an exit from the country, which she said could have applied as early as February 2020 upon completion of the Doha Agreement

Haiti’s chief prosecutor is seeking charges against Prime Minister Ariel Henry in relation to the July assassination of President Jovenel Moise.

Bed-Ford Claude, the Port-au-Prince government commissioner, the equivalent of a federal prosecutor, on Tuesday asked the judge investigating the killing to charge Henry with involvement in the case over alleged phone calls Henry made with one of the main suspects.

Claude also requested that Henry be barred from leaving Haiti “due to the gravity of the facts exposed”.

“There are enough compromising elements … to prosecute Henry and ask for his outright indictment,” Claude wrote in the order.

In a written statement, Milley’s spokesman, Col. Dave Butler, said Milley acted within his authority as the most senior uniformed adviser to the president and to the secretary of defense.

“His calls with the Chinese and others in October and January were in keeping with these duties and responsibilities conveying reassurance in order to maintain strategic stability,” Butler said. “All calls from the chairman to his counterparts, including those reported, are staffed, coordinated and communicated with the Department of Defense and the interagency.”

The Milley phone calls were described in excerpts from the forthcoming book “Peril” by Washington Post journalists Bob Woodward and Robert Costa. The book says Milley told Gen. Li Zuocheng of the People’s Liberation Army that he would warn his counterpart in the event of a U.S. attack.

In the early hours of the morning news broke that North Korea had launched missiles from its east coast towards Japan. Japan’s Coast Guard confirmed that two objects landed just outside their Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). Now images of the launch have been released by Rodong Sinmun, the official newspaper and propaganda mouthpiece of North Korea’s ruling party.

The terrifying images, which show the deadly missiles taking off in a cloud of fire and smoke from the back of a train, were accompanied by a statement. It revealed that Park Jeong-cheon, secretary of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea and a leading member of the Politburo, oversaw the testing of the “railway-borne missile regiment”.

The statement read: “The 8th Congress of the Party… organized a railway-borne missile regiment to increase the capability of dealing an intensive multi-concurrent blow at the forces posing threats to us at a time of conducting necessary military operations.

“The regiment finished rapid movement and deployment according to the norm of the operation and action procedures of the railway-borne missile system, and accurately struck the target in the East Sea of Korea according to the firepower mission.

Joe Biden threw his weight behind the top US military officer on Wednesday, saying he had “great confidence” in the general who, according to a new book, made secret phone calls to Chinese Communist Army top General promising to provide warning of any impending US attack against China.

The US, UK and Australia are setting up a trilateral security partnership aimed at confronting China, which will include helping Australia to build nuclear-powered submarines.

The initiative, called Aukus, was announced jointly by President Joe Biden and prime ministers Boris Johnson and Scott Morrison, following US briefings which described the agreement as binding the three English-speaking countries together.

Boris Johnson, the UK prime minister, said they were “natural allies” even though “we may be separated geographically” and said the alliance would create “a new defence partnership and driving jobs and prosperity”.

A senior US official described the agreement as “a fundamental decision, that binds decisively Australia to the United States and Great Britain for generations”.

During the final months of former President Donald Trump‘s term, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley made two secret phone calls to his Chinese counterpart, Gen. Li Zuocheng of the People’s Liberation Army after he had reviewed intelligence that suggested Chinese officials believed the United States was planning an attack on China amid military exercises in the South China Sea.

“General Li, I want to assure you that the American government is stable and everything is going to be OK,” Milley told him during the first call, the book said. “We are not going to attack or conduct any kinetic operations against you. Gen. Li, you and I have known each other for now five years. If we’re going to attack, I’m going to call you ahead of time,” Milley added, as reported by the book, “Peril,” which is set to be released next week. “It’s not going to be a surprise.”

Sen. James Risch, R-Idaho, claimed Tuesday that someone in the White House other than President Biden is “calling the shots.”

Risch made the comments during Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s hearing before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations about the U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan, which the senator called a “dismal failure.”

“One of the things we need to get to the bottom to is who is responsible for this? Who made the decisions?” Risch said. “[Biden] can’t even speak without someone in the White House censoring it or signing off on it.”

The senator cited an instance Monday in which the White House abruptly ended the feed of Biden’s briefing on wildfires with federal and state officials, cutting him off mid-sentence during a question to George Geissler of the National Association of State Foresters.

Risch said at Tuesday’s hearing, “This is a puppeteer act, if you would, and we need to know who’s in charge and who is making the decisions.”