US strike kills senior al-Qaeda leader in Syria

Former al-Qaeda affiliate Jabhat Fateh al-Sham (JFS) on Monday confirmed that a US-led airstrike killed one of its senior leaders in northern Syria, in a statement on the Telegram app.

"Ahmed Salama, known as Abu Faraj the Egyptian and a member of the shura (consultative council) of Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, was martyred after a coalition airstrike in the west of Idlib province," it said after the Pentagon said a US strike had targeted a "prominent" al-Qaeda figure in Syria.

"We can confirm that we targeted a prominent al-Qaeda member in Syria, and we are assessing the results of the operation at this time," Pentagon spokesman Navy Captain Jeff Davis said earlier on Monday.

"This is a prominent al-Qeada leader," he added.

"Each time we remove a significant Al-Qaeda leader, we disrupt and degrade their command and control and halt their expansion," Davis said.

Ahmed Salama Mabrouk was born in 1956 in Egypt's Giza province.

He is known as a veteran al-Qaeda leader and a commander of JFS, which changed its name from al-Nusra Front after announcing a break with al-Qaeda.

Last month, several leading JFS commanders were killed in a US-led coalition airstrike on a high level jihadist meeting in Aleppo.

One of those killed was Abu Omar Saraqeb, who was believed to be the group’s second in command.

In July, al-Nusra Front's leader Abu Muhammad al-Jolani announced that the group was splitting from al-Qaeda, after gaining the approval of al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, and renamed the outfit Jabhat Fateh al-Sham.

However, the United States still considers the group a terrorist organisation and continues to target its leaders.