Monitor group: Drone strike kills al-Qaida leader in Syria

BEIRUT — Al-Qaida’s second-in-command, who goes by the name of Abu al-Khayr al-Masri, has been killed in a drone strike in northwestern Syria, a monitoring group said Monday.

A U.S. drone is believed to have carried out the strike near a military base in al-Mastoume in the countryside of the province of Idlib, Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told dpa.

Followers of the newly formed militant alliance Hai’at Tahrir al-Sham (Levant Liberation Body) posted a statement saying al-Masri was killed in a “Crusade coalition raid.” The alliance is led by an al-Qaida-affiliated body formerly known as the Nusra Front.

Also in the country’s northwest, at least 13 people were killed in raids believed to have been carried out by Syrian regime planes in Ariha, the Observatory said. The death toll included at least seven civilians, three of them children.

Activists in the area posted videos showing a father crying while carrying his dead 3-year-old son after being pulled out from under the rubble.

Rahman said rescue teams were still searching the rubble for survivors.

In the past two months, the U.S.-led coalition have conducted drone strikes and air raids against al-Qaida linked officials and targets in Idlib province.

Earlier this month, al-Qaida senior member Abu Hani al-Masri was killed in a series of airstrikes in Syria, according to the U.S. Defense Department.

According to the statement, strikes conducted near Idlib on Feb. 3 and 4 killed 11 al-Qaida operatives.

Al-Masri had ties to senior al-Qaida leaders, including Ayman al-Zawahiri and the late Osama bin Laden, the Pentagon statement added.