U.S. Central Command announced Monday that the military conducted a successful drone strike against a "senior al Qaeda leader" in Syria.
The "kinetic counterterrorism strike" took place near Idlib, Syria on Monday, killing the target without taking any civilian lives, according to a statement from Navy Lt. Josie Lynne Lenny, a CENTCOM spokesperson.
"U.S. forces conducted a kinetic counterterrorism strike near Idlib, Syria, today, on a senior al-Qaeda leader," the statement read. "Initial indications are that we struck the individual we were aiming for, and there are no indications of civilian casualties as a result of the strike."
The strike hit a vehicle driving on a rural road, leaving it charred and split down the middle.
No further details were provided and officials did not specify who the target was.
U.S. officials have raised concerns about al Qaeda and their potential resurgence following the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan last month.
Lt. Gen. Scott Berrier, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, and David Cohen, Deputy CIA Director, both said last week that al Qaeda could regain the ability to attack America from Afghanistan in the next two years.
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"The current assessment, probably conservatively, is one to two years for Al Qaeda to build some capability to at least threaten the homeland," Berrier said at the time.
Fears that al Qaeda may return in Afghanistan rose in recent weeks after a video showed that Ayman al Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden’s deputy and successor as leader of the militia group, was alive.
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