American forces claimed to have killed a senior leader of an Al-Qaeda-affiliated militant group in a raid in Syria on Friday, the US military said.
The strike targeted Abu Abdul Rahman al-Makki, who was “a member of the Hurras al-Din Shura Council and a senior leader responsible for overseeing terrorist operations from Syria,” U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a social media post.
“Hurras al-Din is an al-Qaeda affiliated group based in Syria that shares al-Qaeda's international goals of launching attacks against American and Western interests,” CENTCOM said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor earlier reported that a drone strike on a motorbike in the southern Idlib countryside killed Makki, who it said was a Saudi national.
The U.S. military has about 900 troops in Syria as part of an international coalition fighting the Islamic State group. The coalition was formed in 2014 to help combat the jihadists, who control large parts of Iraq and Syria.
American forces regularly launch strikes in Syria to target militants from the Islamic State, which has lost territory it controlled, and other jihadist groups it considers a threat. (ah/ft)
