The United States launched a military operation that killed a senior ISIS leader in Syria on Monday, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said Tuesday in the latest blow to a group that once feared the Middle East.
The statement said that Khalid Aydd Ahmad Al-Jaburi was in charge of planning the ISIS attacks in Europe and developed the group’s leadership structure.
ISIS controlled territories in Iraq and Syria at the height of its power in 2014, before being pushed back in both countries. A UN report in February says the group has between 5,000 and 7,000 members and supporters scattered between Syria and Iraq, about half of them militants.
CENTCOM said no civilians were killed or injured in the strike, adding that the group “continues to pose a threat to the region and beyond.”
CENTCOM forces conducted a unilateral strike in Syria killing an ISIS senior leader responsible for planning attacks into Europe. pic.twitter.com/hwVjqdUTee
— US Central Command (@CENTCOM) April 4, 2023
“Despite the fact that the group has degraded, it is still capable of conducting operations in the region and seeks to strike outside the Middle East,” the statement said. It adds that Al-Jaburi’s death will “temporarily disrupt the group’s ability to plan external attacks.”
The UN report says that in the second half of 2022, the threat posed by Daesh and its affiliates to international peace and security was high and increased in and around conflict zones where it is present.
Late last year, the Islamic State announced the appointment of a previously unknown figure – Abu al-Hussein al-Husseini al-Quraishi – as its leader after the previous leader was killed in southern Syria.
Last week, the TASS news agency reported that Russia protested against the American-led coalition against the Daesh group in connection with the “provocative actions” of the US military in Syria.
This information once again refutes the recent US statement that its military is not in Syria. On March 25, US bases in the Omar and Koniko fields in the province of Deir ez-Zor in eastern Syria came under rocket fire, informs Lebanese TV channel Al-Mayadeen. “Two US coalition bases in the Koniko and Omar fields east of the Euphrates came under rocket attack,” the statement said. According to the sources of the TV channel, eight missiles were fired at Koniko, they fell on the base and near it.
The US military illegally controls territories in the north and northeast of Syria in the provinces of Deir ez-Zor, Al-Hasek and Raqqa, where the largest oil and gas fields in Syria are located. Official Damascus has repeatedly called the presence of the US military on its territory occupation and state piracy, with the aim of outright theft of oil, quotes the President of Syria RIA News.
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