US carries out rare strike against al-Qaeda in Turkish-held zone
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – A US airstrike on Friday in northeast Syria killed senior al-Qaeda leader Abdul Hamid al-Matar in Suluk near the Turkish-controlled Tal Abyad area.
“We have no indications of civilian casualties as a result of the strike, which was conducted using an MQ-9 aircraft,” US Central Command (CENTCOM) confirmed on Friday.
The town of Suluk is allegedly under the control of Ahrar al-Sharqiya, a group backed by Turkey.
In October 2019, the Turkish army and their affiliated Syrian rebel groups, known as the Free Syrian Army (FSA), now renamed the Syrian National Army (SNA), launched a military operation and pushed the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) from the border towns of Ras al-Ain and Tal Abyad.
In July, the US sanctioned the Turkish-backed Ahrar al-Sharqiya militia group for human rights violations against ethnic Kurds and its integration of several former ISIS members into its ranks.
In the past, unidentified drone attacks have targeted ISIS leaders in areas under Turkish control. In May 2020, for example, one former senior ISIS leader was killed in such a strike in Turkish-occupied Afrin.
On Oct 20. in an SDF statement on the fourth anniversary of the liberation of Raqqa from ISIS, the SDF said the Coalition should expand anti-ISIS efforts “to include all areas that are sheltering terrorist elements who have fled the fighting in Raqqa, Baghouz, and elsewhere.”
In September, Farhad Shami, the head of the SDF Office of Media and Information, welcomed an airstrike on a senior al-Qaida leader in Idlib.
“We remind our partners in the international coalition that hundreds of terrorists and ISIS fighters are operating in the occupied areas of Afrin, Tal Abyad, and Ras al-Ain,” he added.
“It is important that the international community pressure Turkey not to turn the occupied areas into a safe environment for terrorists who pose a threat to the world.