On  Friday, the United States launched an air attack deep into Libya to strike at several Islamic State positions. The attack was launched prior to the attacks in Paris. The air strike took out a major leader for the Islamic State as the U.S. announced that it will go after the Islamic State wherever they are.

The Pentagon announced that while it was not the first time American airstrikes have targeted certain positions in Libya, it was the first time they went directly after Islamic State operatives as well as their leadership. It is believed that the attack killed the chief of Islamic State operations in Libya, according to The Washington Post.

The Pentagon also revealed that Libya is the strongest Islamic State base of operations outside of Syria and Iraq. The Islamic State leader who was killed is Wisam al Zubaidi. He was a former police officer in Iraq and was sent to Libya in 2004 to begin to construct a network of operatives in the country. He was responsible for the murders of 21 Egyptian Christians on a Libyan beach that was filmed and released last year.

According to anonymous U.S. military sources, two F-15 warplanes launched and attack in the eastern Libyan city of Derna. Reports are that there were several operatives inside the compound at the time of the attack. It was the first time that the United States has struck at the Islamic State outside of the Syrian civil war. It is also the first time that they have gone after the commanders of the Islamic State.

American intelligence believes that the Libyan operations are a mix of many militants from both inside and outside of Libya. The Islamic State has been trying to establish a stronghold in the country but it has been difficult because of the extreme political instability of the country. For the last year or so, two separate groups have been battling it out in a civil war for the eventual political and military control in Libya.