Top Al Qaeda Leader Killed In Syria Drone Strike, Says US

Washington: One of the top al-Qaeda leaders was killed in a US drone strike in Syria, the Pentagon said Friday The strike comes two days after a base in southern Syria, used by the US- led coalition fighting the Islamic State group, was assaulted A US airstrike moment in northwest Syria killed elderly al-Qaeda leader Abdul Hamid al-Matar,” said Central Command spokesperson Army Major John Rigsbee in a statement.

There were no given casualties from the strike, he said, adding it was conducted using an MQ-9 aircraft “The junking of this al-Qaeda elderly leader will disrupt the terrorist association’s capability to further compass and carry out global attacks,”he said.

At the end of September the Pentagon killed Salim Abu-Ahmad, another elderly Al-Qaeda commander in Syria, in an airstrike near Idlib in the country’s northwest He’d been responsible for”planning, backing, and approving trans-indigenous Al-Qaeda attacks,” according to Centcom.

“Al-Qaeda continues to present a trouble to America and our abettors. Al-Qaeda uses Syria as a safe haven to rebuild, coordinate with external cells, and plan external operations,”Rigsbee said The ongoing war in Syria has created a complex battleground involving foreign armies, regulars and jihadists The war has killed around half a million people since starting in 2011 with a brutal crackdown onanti-government demurrers.