The US military says a senior leader of the jihadist group Islamic State (IS) who was responsible for planning attacks in Europe has been killed in a strike in Syria.
Khalid Aydd Ahmad al-Jabouri died in an undisclosed location on Monday, according to US Central Command.
No civilians were said to have been killed or injured in the attack.
First responders said a man was killed in a drone strike on Monday in opposition-held north-western Syria.
The White Helmets organisation tweeted that an unidentified drone fired a missile at the man on the outskirts of the town of Kili, in Idlib province.
“Our teams responded and took the injured person to Bab Al-Hawa Hospital, where he died,” it added.
Pro-opposition Step News cited local sources as identifying the man as Khalid Abdullah al-Khulaif and saying that he was likely to have been a senior jihadist from the eastern province of Deir al-Zour.
Enab Baladi, another pro-opposition outlet, reported that the man had arrived in the area 10 days earlier and that he had been speaking on a mobile phone when he was targeted with a Hellfire missile.
US Central Command said the death of Khalid al-Jabouri would temporarily disrupt the ability of IS to plot external attacks. It did not mention any attacks or thwarted attacks that he was alleged to have planned.
“[IS] continues to represent a threat to the region and beyond,” its commander, Gen Michael Kurilla, said. “Though degraded, the group remains able to conduct operations within the region with a desire to strike beyond the Middle East.”
The US-led multinational coalition against IS has carried out a series of strikes in northern Syria in recent months targeting senior members of IS and Hurras al-Din, which is believed to be al-Qaeda’s Syria branch.
IS once held 88,000 sq km (34,000 sq miles) of territory stretching from western Syria to eastern Iraq and imposed its brutal rule on almost eight million people.
It was driven from its last piece of territory in 2019, but the UN warned last month that the threat posed by the group and its affiliates was high and increased in particular in conflict zones and neighbouring countries.
IS is estimated to have 5,000 to 7,000 members and supporters spread between Iraq and Syria, roughly half of whom are fighters.
The fighters are based mostly in rural areas and continue to carry out hit-and-run attacks, ambushes and roadside bombings.
Source – BBC News
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