US claims killing senior al-Qaeda operative in Syria strike

The U.S. military confirmed that a senior operative from Al-Qaeda’s Syria branch was killed in an airstrike on northwestern Syria on Thursday.

The targeted strike took place in an area that was once controlled by interim president Ahmad al-Sharaa’s group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), before it led the offensive that resulted in the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in December.

According to a statement from U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), the operation successfully eliminated Mohammad Salah al-Zabir, a high-ranking figure within Hourras al-Din, an Al-Qaeda affiliate.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, reported that Zabir was traveling along the Sarmada-Idlib road when his vehicle was struck by a U.S. drone.

This attack came just days after Hourras al-Din announced its dissolution, a move that was reportedly taken in compliance with orders from the interim leadership. The Observatory noted that the group disbanded to avoid direct confrontation with HTS, which had previously been Al-Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate until it severed ties with the global jihadist network in 2016.

Hourras al-Din was founded in February 2018, according to the U.S.-based SITE Intelligence Group, but it only officially acknowledged its ties to Al-Qaeda in its recent dissolution statement.

The United States designated Hourras al-Din as a terrorist organization in 2019 and had previously offered financial rewards for information on its key members. Over the past year, Washington conducted multiple airstrikes against the group’s leadership in northwestern Syria, including targeted operations in August and September.

Despite continuing to classify HTS as a terrorist organization, the U.S. has eased some of its sanctions on the group following its role in toppling Assad’s government.