Senior al-Qaeda commanders killed in Syria strike — monitor

A drone strike in northwestern Syria has killed two senior commanders with an al-Qaeda-linked group, opposition activists say.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, says the strike was believed to have been carried out by the US-led coalition, which has been targeting extremists in Syria for years.

The drone strike hit a vehicle carrying the two commanders — a Jordanian and a Yemeni — in the northwestern province of Idlib, the last remaining rebel stronghold in war-torn Syria. Idlib is dominated by al-Qaeda-linked militants, and is also home to 3 million civilians.

The Observatory says the men killed were with the al-Qaeda-linked Horas al-Din group, Arabic for “Guardians of Religion.” Horas al-Din are hardcore al-Qaeda elements who broke away from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the strongest insurgent group in the Idlib enclave.

Al-Mohrar Media, an activist collective in northern Syria, says the dead were Horas al-Din’s general military commander, known as Qassam al-Urduni, or “Qassam the Jordanian.” It said the second man was a Yemeni citizen known as Bilal al-Sanaani, the commander of the group’s so-called “desert army.”

#Syria: the military commander of Horas Al-Din was killed today by a US drone, firing the Hellfire "AGM-114R9X" missile already used in the past. Nicknamed "Ninja missile" it has a kinetic warhead with blades (with tremendous effect on ppl inside the car) & doesn't use explosives pic.twitter.com/LDQkxbfMgU

— QalaatM (@QalaatM) June 14, 2020

— AP