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Eugene

(61,595 posts)
Mon Feb 27, 2017, 12:26 PM Feb 2017

US drone strike in Syria kills top al-Qaida leader, jihadis say

Source: The Guardian

One of al-Qaida’s most senior global leaders has been killed by a US drone strike in north-west Syria, jihadi leaders have said.

Abu al-Khayr al-Masri – who has been part of the global jihadi organisation for three decades and was a son-in-law of its founder, Osama bin Laden – was killed on Sunday when a missile fired from a drone hit the small car in which he was travelling. Masri had also been a close aide to al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, a fellow Egyptian.

On Monday, the Pentagon confirmed it had carried out a strike in north-west Syria, but did not say whom the attack had targeted. Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, the al-Qaida-inspired group that Masri had worked alongside in Syria, acknowledged the death, as did individual jihadi leaders.

Hisham al-Hashimi, a Baghdad-based writer on Islamic groups, said Masri’s death was a serious blow to al-Qaida. “His death is no less significant than that of Bin Laden (who was killed by a US raid in Pakistan in May 2011),” Hashimi said. “He was the ideological leader of the group in Iraq, Syria and Yemen and the number two in the organisation overall.”

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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/feb/27/us-drone-strike-in-syria-kills-top-al-qaida-leader-jihadis-say



Martin Chulov in Beirut and Tom McCarthy in New York
Monday 27 February 2017 11.44 GMT
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US drone strike in Syria kills top al-Qaida leader, jihadis say (Original Post) Eugene Feb 2017 OP
TRump got lucky. Just in time to get big applause at his congressional address and silence the JudyM Feb 2017 #1
The Obama policy of drone strikes in Yemen/Syria/Pakistan, as opposed to boots on the ground, msanthrope Feb 2017 #2
This is really scary. That Deash can just purchase drones and use them question everything Feb 2017 #3

JudyM

(29,122 posts)
1. TRump got lucky. Just in time to get big applause at his congressional address and silence the
Mon Feb 27, 2017, 01:41 PM
Feb 2017

challenge from the Seal Team dad William Owens.

 

msanthrope

(37,549 posts)
2. The Obama policy of drone strikes in Yemen/Syria/Pakistan, as opposed to boots on the ground,
Mon Feb 27, 2017, 01:42 PM
Feb 2017

proven again.

question everything

(47,271 posts)
3. This is really scary. That Deash can just purchase drones and use them
Mon Feb 27, 2017, 02:10 PM
Feb 2017

High hopes for the eagles trained by the French military to grab and destroy drones.

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