(Archive) There are still US forces in Syria
The US military announced that it was able to kill a prominent Al-Qaeda leader in an air strike carried out by a drone in Syria.
John Rigsby, a spokesman for the US Central Command, indicated that Abdul Hamid Al-Matar, a leader in Al-Qaeda, was successfully targeted. There were no reports of civilian casualties.
“A US air strike was carried out…in northwestern Syria, killing al-Qaeda leader Abdul Hamid al-Matar,” Rigsby said.
Reports indicated that the operation was carried out in the Suluk neighborhood in Raqqa Governorate, northwest Syria.
The United States still maintains more than 3,000 troops in Syria and Iraq.
A US Central Command spokesman said the airstrike was carried out by an MQ-9 drone.
He pointed out that “the liquidation of the al-Qaeda leader will undermine the terrorist organization’s ability to plot and plan international attacks.”
The raid came two days after the bombing of a military base in southern Syria used by the US-led coalition fighting Islamic State in the region.
At the end of last September, the Pentagon announced the assassination of Salem Abu Ahmed, another al-Qaeda leader in Syria, in an air strike near the northeastern province of Idlib.
US Central Command said at the time that he was “responsible for planning, financing, and approving the organization’s trans-regional attacks”.
Rigsby stressed that the organization “remains a threat to the United States and our allies. It uses Syria as a safe haven to rebuild itself, coordinate with groups loyal to it, and plan foreign operations.”
The ongoing war in Syria has resulted in a complex situation in terms of security and politics, as countries have militarily intervened and armed proxy groups are fighting there.
About half a million people have died in that war since its outbreak in 2011, after brutal repression of the participants in the protests against the government.