US airstrike kills ISIS leader in Syria: CENTCOM
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The United States carried out an airstrike that killed the leader of ISIS in Syria and his deputy.
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A US airstrike carried out in Syria (Archive)
The US occupation of Syria killed the leader of ISIS in the country during an airstrike in Syria, the US Central Command said on Tuesday.
"US Central Command Forces conducted a UAS strike outside Jindayris, northwest Syria targeting two senior ISIS officials, July 12, 2012," a CENTCOM press release read.
"Maher al-Agal, one of the top five ISIS leaders and the leader of ISIS in Syria, was killed in the strike [...] A senior ISIS official closely associated with Maher was seriously injured during the strike," CENTCOM added.
The agency also revealed that there were no civilian casualties as a result of the strike while noting that they believed that Al-Agal was responsible for the development of ISIS networks outside of Iraq and Syria.
"The removal of these ISIS leaders will disrupt the terrorist organization's ability to further plot and carry out global attacks," CENTCOM spokesperson Col. Joe Buccino said, as quoted in the release.
US forces killed, in June, a senior leader of the Al-Qaeda-linked terrorist group Hurras Al-Din, Abu Hamzah al Yemeni, in a drone strike in Syria.
US President Joe Biden announced in February the killing of ISIS leader Abu Ibrahim Al-Hashimi Al-Qurashi in an operation carried out by the US military in northern Syria.
In a statement, Biden confirmed that a US special forces counter-terrorism operation in northwest Syria targeted the ISIS leader. He claimed that the US forces have taken Abu Ibrahim Al-Hashimi Al-Qurashi "off the battlefield."
A senior US official said Al-Qurashi had blown himself up during a nighttime airborne raid by US special forces in northwestern Syria.
Al Mayadeen's correspondent, quoting local sources, reported that four helicopters belonging to the International Coalition carried out a landing operation near the town of Atma north of Idlib, which resulted in at least 13 civilian casualties, including women and children.
Al-Qurashi replaced his predecessor, Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, following the latter's killing in a similar raid in October 2019.
