the leader of ISIS in Syria was killed in an airstrike, the US Central Command has said in a statement.
Maher al Agal, one of the group’s top five leaders, was attacked Monday along with a second unidentified ISIS official outside Jindayris, in northwestern Syria.
“A senior ISIS official closely associated with Maher was seriously injured in the attack,” the army said. “Extensive planning has gone into this operation to ensure its successful execution. An initial evaluation indicates that there were no civilian casualties.”
According to the statement, al Agal was responsible for developing ISIS networks outside Iraq and Syria, and his death is expected to disrupt the group’s ability to plan and carry out attacks on an international level.
The strike comes just months after the group’s head blew himself up with members of his family in February during a US attack on his hideout in Syria, the US said.
The assassination of al-Agal will also deal a blow to the militant group’s efforts to regroup and reorganize in Syria and Iraq, having lost large swaths of territory since their takeover in 2014.
At the height of their rule, ISIS controlled more than 40,000 square miles and over eight million people. Today, they have reverted to guerrilla tactics, including a large-scale attack earlier this year on al Sina prison in the northeastern city of Hasakah.
According to the Washington-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the attack on Sina Prison was “a stark reminder of the organizational strength of ISIS long forgotten since the fall of the border town of Baghouz in March 2019 when former US President Donald Trump announced the collapse of the group’s territorial caliphate”.
On Tuesday, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in northeastern Syria said they had thwarted a plan by ISIS to release the group’s relatives from the al Hol camp, which houses 55,000 people from Syria, Iraq. and some 60 other countries are housed there.