BEIRUT — A drone strike by the U.S.-led coalition in northwestern Syria killed a senior member of an al-Qaida-linked group, Syrian opposition activists and the U.S. army stated Tuesday.
The assault on the suspected militant, who was using a motorbike on the time, got here shortly earlier than midnight on Monday — the newest in a sequence of strikes over the previous years concentrating on al-Qaida-linked militants in northwestern Syria.
The U.S. Central Command stated its forces performed “a kinetic strike” in Syria’s Idlib province, concentrating on Abu Hamzah al Yemeni, a senior chief of Horas al-Din group. Al Yemeni was touring alone on the time of the strike, it stated, including that preliminary evaluate signifies no civilian casualties.
The opposition’s Syrian Civil Protection, also referred to as White Helmets, stated the assault occurred simply south of the rebel-held metropolis of Idlib. The White Helmets stated there have been no different fatalities besides the person on the motorbike, including that they’ve handed over the person’s physique to morgue officers in Idlib.
Syrian opposition activists didn’t determine the slain man whereas the U.S. Central Command assertion indicated he was a Yemeni citizen.
Members of Horas al-Din, Arabic for “Guardians of Faith,” are hardcore al-Qaida parts who broke away from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the strongest rebel group in Idlib, the final main insurgent enclave in war-torn Syria.
In June 2020, the U.S. army killed Khaled Aruri, a high Jordanian commander with Horas al-Din, additionally in Idlib. A drone strike in December 2019 killed a senior Horas al-Din commander, the Jordanian citizen Bilal Khuraisat, also referred to as Abu Khadija al-Urduni.
CENTCOM stated in its assertion that violent extremist organizations, together with Al Qaida-aligned organizations comparable to Horas al-Din, “proceed to current a risk to America and our allies.” It added that al-Qaida-aligned militants use Syria as a protected haven to coordinate with their exterior associates and plan operations outdoors of Syria.
“The elimination of this senior chief will disrupt al-Qaida’s potential to hold out assaults in opposition to U.S. residents, our companions, and harmless civilians around the globe,” CENTCOM stated.
Brett McGurk stated on the time when he was the highest U.S. envoy for the coalition battling the Islamic State group, that Idlib is the most important al-Qaida haven since bin Laden’s days in Afghanistan.
A U.S. airstrike killed al-Qaida’s second in command, former bin Laden aide Abu al-Kheir al-Masri, in Syria in 2017.
In February, the U.S. army killed the newest IS chief, Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, in Idlib province close to the Turkish border. The primary chief of the Islamic State group, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was additionally killed in a U.S. strike in Idlib, in 2019.
