President Donald Trump praised U.S. forces for killing an al-Qaida proxy leader in Syria during the weekend.
U.S. Central Command issued a release saying its forces conducted a precision airstrike in Northwest Syria targeting and killing a senior finance and logistics official in the terrorist organization Hurras al-Din, an al-Qaida affiliate.
"US forces conducted a precision airstrike against a member of al-Qaeda in Syria this weekend," Trump posted Monday night on Truth Social. "The terrorist leader was working with al-Qaeda across the region. Congratulations to CENTCOM Commander Gen. Michael Kurilla, and the US warfighters who dealt Justice to another Jihadi threatening America and our allies and partners."
CENTCOM said the airstrike was part of an ongoing commitment to disrupt and degrade efforts by terrorists to plan, organize, and conduct attacks against civilians and military personnel from the U.S., allies, and partners throughout the region and beyond.
"We will continue to relentlessly pursue terrorists in order to defend our homeland, and U.S., allied, and partner personnel in the region," said Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla, commander, CENTOM.
The U.S. State Department in 2019 designated HaD a specially designated global terrorist group. HaD is an offshoot of the militant group Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham in 2018, The Hill reported.
CENTOM in 2022 issued a statement saying that its forces had gone through with a "kinetic strike" aimed at Abu Hamzah al Yemeni, a senior leader of HaD. The target had been traveling via motorcycle during the strike that happened in Syria's Idlib province.
After meeting with Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Jerusalem on Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country's forces had hit hundreds of targets in Syria to prevent a new Iranian-backed front opening up against Israel.
"Now, if any other force believes that Israel will permit other hostile forces to use Syria as a base of operations against us, they are gravely mistaken," Netanyahu said.
Charlie McCarthy ✉
Charlie McCarthy, a writer/editor at Newsmax, has nearly 40 years of experience covering news, sports, and politics.
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