An Islamic State (IS) extremist group leader linked to a 2015 attack at the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo has been killed in a U.S. drone strike in Syria, U.S. military officials say.
Officials said Boubaker el-Hakim was killed in Raqqa on November 26. He is believed to have played a role in planning the Hebdo attack and others like it, and was a top global propagandist for the group.
El-Hakim, a 33-year-old French Tunisian, was a mentor to the brothers who gunned down cartoonists at the French paper in January 2015, Said and Cherif Kouachi.
The Kouachi brothers led police on a two-day manhunt after attacking Charlie Hebdo, then hid out in a printing plant. Police surrounded the building, and the brothers were killed in a shoot-out after a daylong siege.
The attack on Charlie Hebdo killed 12 people and wounded 11 others.
The attacks prompted a worldwide solidarity movement, with the "Je suis Charlie" (I am Charlie) slogan going viral on social media.
