US strikes on Syria kill 37 with links to ISIS, al-Qaeda, including 2 top terrorists
CENTCOM says strikes ‘will disrupt ISIS’ capability to conduct operations against US interests; also targeted Islamic State training camp earlier this month, killing 28 terrorists
In Syria, 37 terrorists affiliated to the jihadist Islamic State group and an al-Qaeda-linked group were killed in two strikes, the United States military said Sunday.
Two of the dead were senior terrorists, it said.
US Central Command said it struck northwestern Syria on Tuesday, targeting a senior terrorist from the al-Qaeda-linked Hurras al-Deen group and eight others.
It said he was responsible for overseeing military operations.
It also announced a strike from September 16, in which it conducted a “large-scale airstrike” on an Islamic State training camp in a remote undisclosed location in central Syria. That attack killed 28 terrorists, including “at least four Syrian leaders.”
“The airstrike will disrupt ISIS’ capability to conduct operations against US interests, as well as our allies and partners,” the statement read.
There are some 900 US forces in Syria, along with an undisclosed number of contractors, mostly trying to prevent any comeback by the extremist IS group, which swept through Iraq and Syria in 2014, taking control of large swaths of territory.
US forces advise and assist their key allies in northeastern Syria, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, located not far from strategic areas where Iran-backed terror groups are present, including a key border crossing with Iraq.