Airstrike kills al Qaeda-linked commander in Syria, group says
BEIRUT -- A senior commander in Syria’s rebranded al Qaeda affiliate, who was close to the global network’s top leader Aymanal-Zawahri, has been killed in an airstrike, the group said Monday.
The Fatah al-Sham Front, previously known as the Nusra Front, announced the death of Ahmed Salama Mabrouk shortly after the Pentagon said the U.S. had targeted a prominent member of the group in Syria.
In Washington, Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said Mabrouk was targeted in the airstrike by U.S. forces.
“U.S. forces conducted an airstrike today near Idlib, Syria, targeting Egyptian national Abu al-Farai al-Masri, aka Ahmad Salamah Mabruk, one of al Qaeda in Syria’s most senior leaders and a legacy al Qaeda terrorist who previously had ties to Osama bin Laden. We are still assessing the results of the strike,” a statement from Cook said.
But Cook did not confirm his death, saying that the results of the strike are still being assessed.
“His death, if confirmed, would disrupt and degrade coordination among senior AQ leaders and extremists,” Cook said.
A Twitter account run by the Fatah al-Sham Front said that Mabrouk, a veteran Egyptian jihadist also known as Abu Farag al-Masri, was killed in the northern Idlib province, which is controlled by an insurgent alliance that includes the Fatah al-Sham Front.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on a network of activists inside Syria, said Mabrouk was killed when his vehicle was struck near the border with Turkey.
Another senior commander from the group, Abu Omar Saraqib, was killed in an airstrike last month.
Mabrouk was imprisoned in his native Egypt in 1981 in the sweep following the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. He later traveled to Afghanistan, where he became close to al-Zawahri before traveling to Syria earlier this year.
Fatah al-Sham recently announced it was changing its name and severing ties with al Qaeda in a video in which Mabrouk sat next to the group’s top leader, Abu Mohammed al-Golani.
But in part because of the presence of al Qaeda veterans like Mabrouk among its ranks, most experts still view the group as an al Qaeda affiliate, and both the United States and Russia have vowed to keep striking it.