US Strike Kills Jihadist Leader In Syria

A US drone strike in northwestern Syria killed a Yemeni leader of a local jihadist group affiliated to Al-Qaeda, the US military and a Syrian war monitor said. The strike, carried out on Monday just before midnight (2100 GMT) on the eastern edge of the city of Idlib, took out a man described as a leader of the Hurras al-Deen group. "Abu Hamzah al Yemeni was travelling alone on a motorcycle at the time of the strike," US Central Command said in a statement, adding that an "initial review indicates no civilian casualties". The US is "highly confident" that the strike, carried out from a drone, killed Abu Hamzah al-Yemeni, a US official with knowledge of the operation told CNN, speaking on condition of anonymity. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on a wide network of sources inside Syria, confirmed on Tuesday that Yemeni was killed in the attack, saying it was the second such attempt to neutralise him after a similar strike last year.