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.