The U.S. eliminated a key attack planner from an Al Qaeda affiliate in Syria

The Central Command reported Tuesday that the United States liquidated one of the most important planners of attacks linked to the Al Qaeda terrorist group in Syria last week. In a statement, the command said its forces executed the attack last Oct. 2, resulting in the elimination of Muhammad Abd-al-Wahhab al-Ahmad, whom the U.S. military has identified as a senior member of Ansar al-Islam, which is an al Qaeda-affiliated terrorist group.

"U.S. forces in the Middle East remain postured to disrupt and defeat efforts by terrorists to plan, organize and conduct attacks. We will continue to defend our homeland, warfighters, allies and partners throughout the region and beyond," Centcom commander Adm. Brad Cooper said in a statement that did not provide any details on the exact site in Syria where the strike that took down the jihadist organization's plannerwas carried out.

Iron fist against the terrorist threat

In February of this year, Centcom reported that another airstrike executed by the U.S. Army killed another top al-Qaeda-affiliated leader named Muhammad Yusuf Ziya Talay, who was a senior military commander of the Hurras al-Din group. In a statement, the command overseeing U.S. forces located in the Middle East noted that it "conducted a precision airstrike in Northwest Syria, targeting and killing Muhammed Yusuf Ziya Talay, the senior military leader of the terrorist organization Hurras al-Din."

Likewise, then Centcom commander Erik Kurilla noted, "As we have said in the past, we will continue to relentlessly pursue these terrorists in order to defend our homeland, and U.S., allied, and partner personnel in the region." Similarly, Kurilla added that since Hurras al-Din announced in late January its disbandment, U.S. airstrikes have taken out several of the group's leaders.