{"id":149566,"date":"2021-10-23T14:42:39","date_gmt":"2021-10-23T06:42:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=149566"},"modified":"2021-10-23T14:42:39","modified_gmt":"2021-10-23T06:42:39","slug":"senior-al-qaeda-leader-killed-in-us-drone-strike-in-syria-pentagon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=149566","title":{"rendered":"Senior al-Qaeda leader killed in US drone strike in Syria: Pentagon"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img src=\"https:\/\/www.bssnews.net\/assets\/news_photos\/2021\/10\/23\/image-24066-1634961078.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>\u00a0WASHINGTON, Oct 23 (NNN-AGENCIES) &#8212; A senior al-Qaeda leader was killed in a US drone strike in Syria, the Pentagon said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u00a0 The Friday strike comes two days after a base in southern Syria, used by the US-led coalition fighting the Daesh group, was assaulted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u00a0 &#8220;A US airstrike today (Friday) in northwest Syria killed senior al-Qaeda leader Abdul Hamid al-Matar,&#8221; said Central Command spokesman Army Major John Rigsbee in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u00a0 There were no known casualties from the strike, he said, adding it was conducted using an MQ-9 aircraft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u00a0 &#8220;The removal of this al-Qaeda senior leader will disrupt the terrorist organization&#8217;s ability to further plot and carry out global attacks,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u00a0 At the end of September the Pentagon killed Salim Abu-Ahmad, another senior Al-Qaeda commander in Syria, in an airstrike near Idlib in the country&#8217;s northwest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u00a0 He had been responsible for &#8220;planning, funding, and approving trans-regional Al-Qaeda attacks,&#8221; according to Centcom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u00a0 &#8220;Al-Qaeda continues to present a threat to America and our allies. Al-Qaeda uses Syria as a safe haven to rebuild, coordinate with external affiliates, and plan external operations,&#8221; Rigsbee said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u00a0 The ongoing war in Syria has created a complex battlefield involving foreign armies, militias and jihadists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u00a0 The war has killed around half a million people since starting in 2011 with a brutal crackdown on anti-government protests. &#8212; NNN-AGENCIES<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0WASHINGTON, Oct 23 (NNN-AGENCIES) &#8212; A senior al-Qaeda leader was killed in a US drone strike in Syria, the Pentagon said. \u00a0 The Friday strike comes two days after a base in southern Syria, used by the US-led coalition fighting the Daesh group, was assaulted. \u00a0 &#8220;A US airstrike today (Friday) in northwest Syria killed [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[208,217],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149566"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=149566"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149566\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=149566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=149566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=149566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}