Major IS commander killed by Sahel troops, Mali says

A joint force made up of troops from Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger has killed a "major Islamic State commander" with a $5m (£4m) US bounty on his head, Mali state television has reported.

ORTM TV said Abu Huzeifa's killing was part of an operation that was carried out in a tri-border area between the three Sahel countries.

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

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

The US State Department had offered a $5m bounty for information on Huzeifa and his alleged role in that attack.

Malian social media users celebrated the operation, praising the regional troops for succeeding where Western forces "had failed".

ORTM TV said Huzeifa was a Moroccan national who first arrived in Mali in 2012 and married a local woman.

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

Last month, the three countries' military governments said they would form a joint force to fight jihadists, months after forming a mutual defence pact.