U.S. Says Key Al-Qaeda Leader Killed In Syria Air Strike

The U.S. military said it killed an Al-Qaeda leader in an air strike near Idlib in Syria on January 17.

The Pentagon on January 19 identified the man as Mohammad Habib Boussadoun al-Tunisi, a Tunisian and an "external operations leader."

It said he had been "connected to terrorist plots to attack Western targets."

The man had arrived in Syria in 2014 after spending several years in Europe and the Middle East, where he had ties with multiple extremists, the Pentagon said on its website.

His death "will degrade Al-Qaeda's pool of experienced, well-connected facilitators and fighters with external operations experience," it said.