A senior Al-Qaida official was killed in air strikes Sunday night that killed at least 21 other militants in Idlib province, a jihadist stronghold in northern Syria, according to monitoring groups.
The SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadi websites, said Abu Firas al-Souri died in U.S. strikes. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the jets were thought to belong to the Syrian or Russian Air Forces. It said they targeted the headquarters of Jund al-Aqsa, an extremist group that fights alongside al-Qaida’s Syrian affiliate, the Nusra Front.
Abu Firas al-Souri was the former official spokesman for the Nusra Front, the group reported on social media Monday.
A 2014 biographical video about al-Souri, obtained by SITE, says he used to represent Osama bin Laden in Pakistan after he met the al-Qaida founder in Afghanistan during the jihad against the Soviet Union in the 1980s.
Al-Souri, born outside Damascus in 1949, followed the path of many Syrian jihadists. A graduate of the country’s military college, he trained jihadist cells in the country between 1977 and 1980, heading several operations against the authorities for the latter part of that period. He was expelled from the Syrian military in part because of his Islamist ties in 1979.
He fled to Jordan in 1980 then to Afghanistan in 1981 where he trained jihadists coming to the war-torn country from across Asia and the Arab world. He became an associate of bin Laden and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a senior al-Qaida commander who led the organization’s affiliate in Iraq following the 2003 U.S. invasion.
Al-Souri participated in a number of major military operations in Afghanistan and Pakistan before transferring to Yemen in 2003. In 2013, the al-Qaida leadership transferred him to Syria to mend the growing rift between the group and the Islamic State.
A media outlet belonging to the Lebanese militia Hezbollah said al-Souri’s son was also killed in the air strikes.
Hezbollah has sent thousands of its fighters to fight alongside Syrian government forces in the country’s five-year civil war. The group was reported to have lost a dozen soldiers in fierce fighting in northern Syria last weekend as jihadist groups alongside rebel militias mounted an offensive against several government positions.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
Allah will run out of virgins.
Every al Qaeda or ISIS terrorist that is blown to smithereens is good news. The best way to deal with these terrorists is to kill them. They can’t be reasoned with. They can’t be tolerated. I’m glad to see the armies of the world are working to get rid of them.
If you read about the Obama firing of our government Secret Service members for NOT MAKING UP LIES “U.S. KILLING THE TOP MEMBER OF ISIS” or “US KILLING #2 ISIS” or U.S. KILLED the TOP BOMB EXPERT OF ISIS.” Just like the DNC corrupted US Elections, now they are dishing out HEADLINE LIES. This shows how a foreigner thinks America is run—-Not even close. We expect the legal US Citizens to have morals, honesty, self-
discipline to follow the rules, laws, morals of a proud patriotic American, And Now Iran has been handed a trumped
up Treaty, Iran is arming the enemies of the USA. Schools need to teach A NEW WORD-how to spell TREASON.
There is a fine line between sanity and insanity, the line between ignoring the law and breaking the law is defined by Lawyers and people that cannot discern Right from wrong and have no regard to the Republic we are losing so fast the average Late Night show attendee cannot comprehend. The old meme of when TSHTF is no longer applicable, it has already hit and most of the country is still visiting Wal-Mart and 100% clueless.
Gotta love it when karma takes them to hell !
Russia and other armies, why is the US Military not in on the party. Would seem to me that working together with the other military’s of the world, would be a “Death Sentence ” to all of these Terriosts.
O’bama is such a inexperienced, (after 7 years?), false leader, the only decisions he makes have been horrible for every tax payer, can NOT find one thing that that O’bama has done that has helped, NOT ONE!!
I believe O’bama believes he is entitled, and should NOT, have to make such Trival Decisions, he wants the Underlings to handle this small details, he should be be thinking about more ENLIGHTENED, AND THINGS THAT WILL CHANGE THE WORLD FOREVER. (Iran nuke deal comes to mind).
Any person after 7 years in “Any Job”, would be able to connect the Dots on how to do their job, and would have some insight about ideas in improve outcomes, and what would help to stop the torture and slaughter of innocent people. All this administration has done is to make sure ISIS, has for warning that there will be a bombing on Thursday @ 14:35 hour, be sure evacuate all homes and buildings.
People that have never held a “real job” , has ever created income from hard work or Employment of other people should be Exempt from running for any office.
Questions about relationships should matter, especially when those relationships are that include Domestic Terrorists & Felons…… Red Flags YA THINK?
Dear HORN,
How is this blog considered free speech if you can’t call a duck a duck or a leader a Muslim when the shoe fits?
Am I the only one to notice that the headline does not match the story?
Obama is amuslim terrorist