Pentagon: Senior Al-Qaida Leader Killed in US Drone Strike in Syria

A U.S. military drone strike in Syria Friday killed a high-level al-Qaida leader, according to the U.S. Central Command.

Command spokesman U.S. Army Major John Rigsbee said in a statement the killing of Abdul Hamid al-Matar “will disrupt the terrorist organization's ability to further plot and carry out global attacks threatening U.S. citizens, our partners, and innocent civilians.”

The strike occurred two days after a U.S. base in southern Syria was attacked, causing no U.S. deaths or casualties. Rigsbee did not say if Friday’s U.S. strike was retaliatory.

A U.S. airstrike in September killed another senior al-Qaida leader near Idlib in northwestern Syria.

The U.S. Central Command said then that Salim Abu-Ahmad was in charge of “planning, funding and approving trans-regional al-Qaida attacks.”

As of late September, Syria’s 10-year civil war involving foreign troops, militias and jihadists had killed at least 350,000 civilians, according to the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Some information for this report came from Agence France-Presse, the Associated Press and Reuters.