US forces kill two top ISIS leaders in an airstrike in northern Syria
Three key ISIS leaders in Syria were killed in separate airstrikes conducted by the US military on Wednesday and Thursday, United States Central Command said.
Three key ISIS leaders in Syria were killed in separate airstrikes by the United States military, CNN reported on Thursday. While a helicopter raid on a village in northern Syria on October 5 killed a senior Islamic State terrorist, a separate airstrike on October 6 killed two other leaders. These raida are one of the United States’ several efforts to weaken ISIS’ dominance in Syria.
“USCENTCOM is committed to our allies and partners in the enduring defeat of ISIS,” US Central Command spokesman Col. Joe Buccino said in an official statement.
isis leaders eliminated
according to us defense officials, the strike, which took place at 6:23 pm local time in northern syria, killed isis deputy leader abu ‘ala and abu mu’ad al-qahtani, an isis leader who dealt with prisoner matters.
the us military central command stated that it was successful in killing the operation’s key target, rakkan wahid al-shammri, an isis leader “known to facilitate the smuggling of weapons and fighters.”
“no us forces were injured or killed during the operation, no civilians were killed or wounded, and there was no loss or damage to us equipment,” the combatant command said, adding that shammri’s close associate was wounded in the attack and two others were taken into custody.
“This operation aims to expand the scope of targeting this organisation’s members across different parts of Syria,” a source said, according to The Guardian.
The Central Command, which is responsible for supervising US’ defense forces deployed in the Middle East, has spent over 1,000 hours gathering intel on key targets to combat risks of collateral damage.
US military’s back-to-back operations to combat ISIS
Earlier this year in February, the Pentagon conducted a military raid in the northwestern region of Syria which resulted in the death of SIS leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, who used a suicide vest to kill himself. The raid was the biggest US military operation in Syria since the killing of former ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in 2019.
This year un July, an American drone strike neutralised Maher al-Agal, who was then the leader of ISIS in Syria. In a statement, the US said Agal was responsible for developing ISIS networks outside Iraq and Syria.
