US airstrike kills Al-Qaeda affiliate leader: CENTCOM

An American airstrike killed an Al-Qaeda-affiliated leader in northwest Syria, US Central Command revealed Saturday.

US Central Command forces conducted a precision strike on Feb. 23 targeting and killing Muhammed Yusuf Ziya Talay, a senior military leader of the terrorist organization Hurras al-Din, an affiliate of the terrorist organization, officials said. 

“As we have said in the past, we will continue to relentlessly pursue these terrorists in order to defend our homeland, and U.S., allied, and partner personnel in the region,” CENTCOM Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla said. 

The attack came roughly a week after CENTCOM forces conducted an airstrike targeting and killing a “senior finance and logistics official” with Hurras al-Din.

Hurras al-Din, which was formed in 2018 after the Nusrah Front terror group decided to split from Al-Qaeda, operates largely in Syria’s Idlib Province and is thought to have as many as 2,500 members, according to the National Counterterrorism Center. 

The group “advocates attacks against the West and Israel to expel foreign influence from Muslim lands, and it seeks to set the conditions necessary to form a new caliphate across the Levant and the broader Middle East,” according to the NCC.

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