:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/archetype/XRFCBI2GGRAHBMAHTIRI76REDY.png "US airstrike kills senior ISIS leader in Syria 4")
The United States conducted an airstrike in Syria on Monday that killed a senior Islamic State official, according to a statement from U.S. Central Command.
Khalid ‘Aydd Ahmad al-Jabouri, the target of the “unilateral strike,” was responsible for planning ISIS attacks in Europe and developing the leadership structure of the terrorist organization, the release said.
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CENTCOM released a statement late Monday night announcing the death of al-Jabouri.
“ISIS continues to represent a threat to the region and beyond,” Gen. Michael Kurilla, the head of CENTCOM, said in the statement. “Though degraded, the group remains able to conduct operations within the region with a desire to strike beyond the Middle East.”
No civilians were killed or injured in the strike, according to CENTCOM.
The last strike carried out on a senior ISIS official came on Feb. 17, when U.S. troops and Syrian Democratic forces killed Hamza al-Homsi in a helicopter raid.
The Department of Defense first deployed troops to Syria in 2014 to counter the rise of ISIS. In 2022, U.S. forces conducted 14 unilateral and 108 partnered operations that killed a total of 466 ISIS fighters, according to an end-of-year statement by CENTCOM. An additional 215 fighters were captured in the operations. U.S. forces have operated in Syria under the 2001 authorization for the use of force in the War on Terror.
The strike comes nearly a month after the House of Representatives considered a war powers resolution, introduced by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), that would withdraw the estimated 900 U.S. troops currently deployed to Syria. The lower chamber voted against the resolution.
Zamone “Z” Perez is a rapid response reporter and podcast producer at Defense News and Military Times. He previously worked at Foreign Policy and Ufahamu Africa. He is a graduate of Northwestern University, where he researched international ethics and atrocity prevention in his thesis. He can be found on Twitter @zamoneperez.
