![A man inspects a site where a US drone strike killed ISIS leader Maher al-Agal near the village of Khaltan, near Jindires in northern Syria, on July 12. [Rami al-Sayed/AFP]](/cnmi_st/images/2023/04/07/41559-Syria-drone-strike-739_416.webp)
The US military on Monday (April 3) conducted a "unilateral strike" in Syria that killed a senior "Islamic State of Iraq and Syria" (ISIS) leader responsible for planning attacks in Europe.
The strike in northwestern Syria on Monday killed senior ISIS leader Khalid Aydd Ahmad al-Jabouri, the US military's Central Command (CENTCOM) said.
Al-Jabouri was "responsible for planning (ISIS) attacks into Europe", it said.
He also "developed the leadership structure for ISIS", it added, noting that his death will "temporarily disrupt the organisation's ability to plot external attacks".
The statement did not specify the location of the strike.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, al-Jabouri was killed in the northwestern province of Idlib, which is largely controlled by opposition and extremist groups.
It said he was killed in a drone strike while speaking on a telephone as he walked in the open near where he was staying.
Al-Jabouri, who was posing as a Syrian, had sought refuge in the area about two weeks ago, according to the Observatory.
US forces have conducted a series of operations targeting ISIS leaders in Syria in recent years, alongside partner forces, including the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
A persistent threat
The latest strike came as ISIS attacks continue to claim lives in Syria.
The Observatory said it has documented 46 ISIS operations, including attacks and explosions, in areas of Syria under the control of the Kurdish Autonomous Administration since early 2023.
These have left 33 people dead, among them five civilians, it said.
In Syria's eastern desert (Badiya), ISIS has continued to stage brutal attacks on truffle hunters, killing more than 150 so far this season.
Some had their throats cut, while others had been kidnapped and then killed, with four of their abandoned corpses discovered this week, the Observatory said.
Across the border in Iraq, the Iraqi army in March raided several ISIS hideouts in the west and east of the country, killing a large number of extremists, including foreign fighters and the group's leaders.
Iraqi officials and other sources said ISIS is weakened and short of money but still has a sting in its tail as it remains capable of inflicting harm on civilians.
"ISIS continues to represent a threat to the region and beyond," CENTCOM commander Gen. Michael "Erik" Kurilla said in a statement.
"Though degraded, the group remains able to conduct operations within the region with a desire to strike beyond the Middle East", Kurilla said.
ISIS has claimed a number of deadly attacks in Europe in recent years, including a November 2015 attack in Paris and its suburbs that killed 130 people and another in the French city of Nice in July 2016 that killed 86 people.
The same year, three suicide attacks in Belgium killed more than 30 people.
In August 2017, attacks claimed by ISIS in Barcelona and elsewhere in Spain killed 16 people.
In any part of the world with harmful people, they should be imprisoned forever. Anyone who harms other people, whether the harmful person is a Muslim, a Christian, a Jew, a Buddhist, etc., should be isolated from other people. He should be imprisoned so that he cannot harm other people. Life is too short. Life should be spent doing good deeds and serving humanity, but one thing is that these activities in the name of al-Qaeda and terrorists have now changed to trade. For example, China calls one group terrorist, America calls another group terrorist, Russia calls another group terrorist, Iran, and India calls another group terrorist... and then they sell weapons to the countries where such groups are active to destroy them. If work is done honestly, all harmful groups can be eliminated quickly. I do not support killing anyone. This is how this world was created. Otherwise, look at Russia; Russia wasn't a terrorist, but how many crimes did they commit in Ukraine? Once, the Soviet Union committed crimes in Afghanistan, and now Russia is committing the same crimes in Ukraine.
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