Senior Al Qaeda leader killed in US drone strike

The U.S. military has killed senior al-Qaeda leader Abdul Hamid al-Matar in a drone strike in Syria, a US Central Command spokesman said.

 

“The removal of this al-Qaeda senior leader will disrupt the terrorist organisation’s ability to further plot and carry out global attacks threatening US citizens, our partners, and innocent civilians,” U.S. Army Major John Rigsbee said in a written statement late on Friday.

 

Rigsbee did not say if the US drone strike was carried out in retaliation for the attack. In September, the Pentagon also conducted a strike in rebel-controlled northwestern Syria, killing another senior al-Qaeda leader, Salim Abu-Ahmad.

 

The ongoing war in Syria has created a complex battlefield involving foreign armies, militias and other armed groups linked to al-Qaeda, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) and other affiliated groups.