US drone strike on Syria kills Daesh commander who planned attacks in Europe

A drone strike conducted by the US-led coalition has reportedly killed a senior member of the Daesh terror group which led the planning of attacks in Europe.

According to a statement by the US military, the one man killed in the strike on north-west Syria was identified as Khalid ‘Aydd Ahmad Al Jabouri, the figure in Daesh who was in charge of planning attacks in Europe. His death “will temporarily disrupt the organisation’s ability to plot external attacks”, the statement said.

Media outlets cited Syrian opposition activists as saying that the deceased initially showed up in the area around 10 days ago, under the claim of being a displaced person from the eastern Syrian province of Deir-ez-Zor, near the Iraqi border.

He reportedly made that claim to make up for the fact that his Iraqi dialect of Arabic was similar to that spoken in Deir-ez-Zor, in an effort to hide his Iraqi identity, as the Al-Jabouri tribe is one of the largest tribes in Iraq and also has members in eastern and northern Syria.

The US military’s statement was corroborated by the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights’ reporting that one person was killed in a drone strike near the opposition-held village of Kefteen in north-west Syria, and that the deceased man was identified as an Iraqi citizen who was struck as he spoke on his cell phone outside his rented accommodation.

READ: US will not back off Syria mission despite deadly attacks – White House