IDLIB (Syria): US forces attacked jihadist leaders in north-western Syria on Saturday, the Pentagon said, in what a battlefield monitor called a missile strike that left at least 40 dead. The US strike came as renewed Syrian regime bombardment of Idlib province killed one civilian in a first violation of a Russianbacked truce for the region that came into effect just hours before, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The US Defence Department said its own attack targeted leaders of Al-Qaeda in the north of the same province, but did not say what kind of weapon was used. That attack targeted leaders of jihadist groups and allied factions near Idlib city, the Observatory said.
The US missile attack “targeted a meeting held by the leaders of Hurras al-Deen, Ansar al-Tawhid and other allied groups inside a training camp”, said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Observatory. It killed at least 40 jihadist leaders, the Britain based monitor said. The US Central Command said in a statement that the attack targeted leaders of Al-Qaeda in Syria (AQ-S) “responsible for attacks threatening US citizens, our partners and innocent civilians. “Additionally, the removal of this facility will further degrade their ability to conduct future attacks and destabilize the region.”
An AFP correspondent saw clouds of black smoke rising over the area after blasts rocked the jihadist stronghold. Ambulances rushed to the site of the attack, which was closed off to journalists, he said. It was not immediately clear if the missiles were launched from war planes or positions on the ground, the monitor said. Centcom declined to say what kind of weaponry was used.
On July 1 the US said it had carried out a strike on Hurras al-Deen in north-western Syria, in its first such operation there in two years. Al-Qaeda-linked Hurras alDeen was established in February 2018 and has some 1,800 fighters, including non-Syrians, according to the Observatory. The group and its ally Ansar alTawhid both operate in the Idlib region and are members of a joint jihadist operation room that also includes Al-Qaeda’s former Syria affiliate, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). Most of Idlib province and parts of neighbouring Aleppo and Latakia provinces are controlled by HTS.
Syrian government air strikes on the jihadist-run Idlib region had halted early on Saturday, after the regime agreed to a Moscowbacked ceasefire following four months of deadly bombardment, the monitor said. Saturday’s truce is the second such agreement between the Syrian President Bashar alAssad’s regime and jihadists since August 1. But regime bombardment on the town of Kafranbel late in the day left one civilian dead, just hours after the truce came into effect, the monitor said. – AFP
