New Delhi: The US Defence official on Thursday late night confirmed that a senior al-Qaeda leader has been killed in a drone strike in Syria conducted by the US Army. Salim Abu-Ahmad was killed in a U.S. airstrike near Idlib, Syria on September 20, and he was responsible for planning, funding, and approving trans-regional al Qaeda attacks.
“There are no indications of civilian casualties,” US Defence officials said.
According to a media report, a drone strike hit a vehicle traveling on a rural road in rebel-controlled northwestern Syria, killing at least one person. The Civil Defense team, known as White Helmets, said the unidentified body was lifted from the car along the Idlib-Binnish road east of Idlib province.
“Two cars were hit by an airstrike on the border between Iraq and Syria,” the source said. According to him, the strike was allegedly inflicted by the US Air Force.
The US Central Command said “American forces had conducted a kinetic counterterrorism strike near Idlib province targeting a senior leader of the militant group al Qaeda,”
“Initial indications are that we struck the individual we were aiming for, and there are no indications of civilian casualties as a result of the strike,” said Navy Lt. Josie Lynne Lenny in a statement.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the vehicle had been carrying a militant linked to al Qaeda.
The US has carried out attacks in Idlib before, targeting al Qaeda militants and the leader of the Islamic State group, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who was hiding in the province after fleeing from eastern Syria.
(_Vinayak Barot)