WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. military says it killed a senior al-Qaida leader in an airstrike Friday in northwest Syria.
Army Maj. John Rigsbee, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command, said in a statement that Abdul Hamid al-Matar was killed by a drone strike.
Rigsbee said the killing of al-Matar will disrupt al-Qaida's “ability to further plot and carry out global attacks threatening U.S. citizens, our partners, and innocent civilians." He said al-Qaida “uses Syria as a base for threats reaching into Syria, Iraq and beyond.”
The drone strike came two days after a U.S. military outpost in southern Syria was hit by a coordinated attack that included drones and rockets. U.S. officials said no American troops stationed there were injured or killed.
![Members of Bashar Assad's army line up to register with Syrian rebels in Damascus, Syria.](http://images04.military.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail_large/public/2024-12/ApNewsroom_Syria_93981.jpg?itok=KtmjProB "Members of Bashar Assad's army, or a pro-government militia, line up to register with Syrian rebels as part of an "identification and reconciliation process" in Damascus, Syria, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)")
![A Danish soldier onboard the Danish warship Esbern Snare.](http://images05.military.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail_large/public/2024-12/ApNewsroom_Cyprus_Syria_83465.jpg?itok=FpC0C1Xo "FILE - A Danish soldier onboard the Danish warship "Esbern Snare" as the Danish cargo ship Ark Futura, background, transports Syria's dangerous chemical weapons out of the strife-torn country, out of Cyprus coastal city of Larnaca, on Tuesday, May 13, 2014. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias, File)")
