WASHINGTON: A US helicopter raid on Monday hit a key Islamic State group leader in Syria suspected of planning attacks in the Middle East and Europe, US Central Command said.
Centcom said that the US Central Command troops carried out a helicopter raid in northern Syria, targeting a key ISIS leader and operational planner.
It alleged that the leader was responsible for plotting terror attacks in Europe and the Middle East.
The statement said that the raid resulted in the probable death of the targeted leader while two other armed individuals were also killed. It did not identify them.
It added that no civilians or US forces were hurt.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the strike hit the building where an IS leader was present in Al-Suwaydah, a village about twenty-five kilometres west of Jarabulus on Syria’s northern border with Turkiye.
The Observatory said the strike killed the main target and two other fighters.
The IS leader had previously been incarcerated in Kurdish-held Manbij, south of Jarabulus, the Observatory said.
It said he had taken refuge in Al-Suwaydah around six months earlier under the protection of a pro-Turkish group.
Local residents told AFP that the man was targeted and killed as he tried to flee but in vain. His body was handed over to one of his brothers.
A Turkish-backed rebel outfit deployed in Al-Suwaydah said in a statement that 2 of its fighters were killed after they went to the place of the attack.
Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said that many former IS militants joined pro-Turkish outfits after the jihadists lost their last hubs in Syria in March 2019.
US another strike
Earlier this month, the US military launched a strike in Syria, killing a key IS leader Khalid Aydd Ahmad al-Jabouri, who, according to Centcom, was responsible for plotting attacks in Turkey and Europe.
In October 2019, the US announced it had killed IS chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in a successful operation in northwestern Syria.
His two successors have also been killed: the first in a US forces’ operation in northwestern Syria and the other in operation by former Syrian rebels in Syria’s south.
