Willie R. Tubbs, FISM News
A man the United States says was responsible for planning al-Qaeda attacks in and around Syria has been killed.
On Thursday, the Military Times reported that United States Central Command had confirmed the death of Salim Abu-Ahmad.
“Salim Abu-Ahmad was responsible for planning, funding, and approving trans-regional al-Qaeda attacks,” Army Maj. John Rigsbee, a CENTCOM spokesman, told Military Times. “There are no indications of civilian casualties as a result of the strike. This strike continues U.S. operations to degrade international terrorist networks and target terrorist leaders who seek to attack the U.S. homeland and its interests and allies abroad.”
As of this writing, U.S. officials have not provided any specifics as to what types of attacks Abu-Ahmad orchestrated or how many, if any, Americans were victimized by these attacks.
Central Command had first disclosed this strike in a statement released on Sept. 20.
“U.S. forces conducted a kinetic counterterrorism strike near Idlib, Syria, today, on a senior al-Qaeda leader,” Navy. Lt. Josie Lynne Lenny said. “Initial indications are that we struck the individual we were aiming for, and there are no indications of civilian casualties as a result of the strike.”
This was the latest in a series of attacks from Western militaries on terrorist groups.
In August, French military forces killed Adnan Abu Walid al-Sahrawi, a key figure in ISIS, while the U.S. conducted air strikes in Somalia aimed at rooting out groups connected to al-Qaeda.
However, one of these attacks proved disastrous. In August, a U.S. drone strike in Kabul resulted in the death of 10 Afghan civilians.