Syria: a leader of a group linked to al-Qaeda killed in an American strike

Fighters affiliated with the jihadist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) in Syria carry the remains of a motorbike believed to have been targeted in a drone attack on the eastern edge of Syria's rebel-held province of Idlib early June 28, 2022. The U.S. military said it carried out a kinetic strike targeting a leader of the al-Qaeda-affiliated Houras al-Din jihadist group in Syria's Idlib province.

AFP - ABDULAZIZ KETAZ

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A leader of a jihadist group allied with the al-Qaeda network was killed on Monday (June 27) in a US airstrike in the province of Idleb, in northwestern Syria at war.

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This is the second US operation against jihadists in Syria in less than a month.

On June 16, US forces captured Hani Ahmed Al-Kurdi, a leader of the Islamic State (IS) group, a rival organization of al-Qaeda, during a helicopter raid in the province of Aleppo (north).

On Monday, the US Army's Central Command (Centcom) said in a statement that it had targeted Abu Hamza al-Yemeni, a leader of the Houras al-Din group, " 

who was traveling alone on a motorcycle during the strike

 ", ensuring that no indication of civilian casualties.

US authorities have a " 

high degree of confidence

 " that the strike, carried out using a drone, killed the jihadist leader, according to an official familiar with the operation quoted by the American channel CNN.

The elimination of this senior leader will disrupt al-Qaeda's ability to carry out attacks against American citizens, our partners, and innocent civilians around the world

 ," Centcom said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH), which relies on an extensive network of sources in Syria, confirmed the strike and the identity of the jihadist killed, adding that the Americans had tried to kill him. last year in a similar strike.

According to an AFP correspondent in Idleb, jihadists gathered at the site of the attack where charred human remains lay.

All factions targeted

Part of Idlib province and segments of neighboring Hama, Aleppo and Latakia provinces are dominated by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the former Syrian branch of al-Qaeda.

The region is also home to rebel groups and other HTS-allied jihadist formations, including Houras al-Din.

All these factions have already been the target of air raids by the Syrian regime, its Russian ally, but also by the international anti-jihadist coalition and the United States itself.

Before the operation of June 16, the American special forces had killed on February 3 in Syria, a country divided by the war, the leader of the EI, Abou Ibrahim al-Hachimi al-Qourachi.

His predecessor Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was also eliminated in a US raid in Syria in 2019. The complex war in Syria, involving different protagonists, has claimed around 500,000 lives since 2011.

►Also read:

Syria: the American army claims to have captured a former leader of the IS

(With

AFP

)

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  • Syria

  • Terrorism

  • United States

  • al-Qaeda