Source Link
Excerpt:
DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — A raid by U.S.-led forces in northwestern Syria on Friday killed a senior leader in the Islamic State militant group, the U.S. military said Friday.
The U.S. Central Command said in a statement that it had killed IS leader Dhiya Zawba Muslih al-Hardan and his two adult sons, who were also affiliated with the group, early Friday in a raid in the town of al-Bab, in Syria’s Aleppo province.
It said the men “posed a threat to U.S. and Coalition Forces, as well as the new Syrian Government,” adding that three women and three children at the site were not harmed.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a U.K.-based war monitor, said the raid was carried out through an airdrop of forces, the first of its kind to be carried out by the U.S.-led coalition against IS this year, and that ground forces from both the Syrian government’s General Security forces and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces participated.
The observatory said the operation was “preceded by a tight security cordon around the targeted site, a heavy deployment of forces on the ground, and the presence of coalition helicopters in the airspace of the area.”
