The US military announced on Friday, October 22, that it had killed an Al-Qaida leader in a drone strike in Syria, two days after the attack carried out against a base in southern Syria used by the anti-jihadist coalition led by the United States.
“An American airstrike carried out today in the north-west of Syria killed the top leader of Al-Qaida, Abdul Hamid Al-Matar”Commander John Rigsbee, a spokesperson for the US Army Central Command (Centcom) said in a statement.
The attack was carried out in the Soulouk region in northern Syria, part of the territory under Turkish control. “We saw no sign of civilian casualties as a result of the strike, which was carried out by an MQ-9 drone”, he said in reference to the armed drone nicknamed “Reaper” (“Grim Reaper”, in English).
The spokesperson did not say whether it was retaliation after Wednesday’s attack on the Al-Tanf base, used by the coalition near the Syrian borders with Jordan and Iraq, which no has not made a victim. According to Centcom, this attack “Deliberate and coordinated” had been carried out with drones and artillery fire.
Syria, al-Qaida fallback base
“Al-Qaida continues to pose a threat to the United States and our allies”, he simply said. The group “Uses Syria as a fallback base to reconstitute itself, coordinate with its affiliates and plan operations abroad”.
“The elimination of this top al-Qaida leader will affect the ability of the terrorist organization to plan and carry out attacks against American citizens, our partners and innocent civilians”, he added.
The Pentagon had eliminated, at the end of September, another “Senior al-Qaida leader” in Syria, Salim Abou-Ahmad, during an airstrike near Idlib, in the north-west of the country.
It was “Responsible for planning, financing and approving trans-regional attacks” perpetrated by the jihadist organization, according to Centcom.
Some 900 American troops remain deployed in northeastern Syria, where they continue to cooperate with the Syrian Democratic Forces, and at the Al-Tanf base, located in the south of the country, on the borders of Iraq and Syria. Jordan.