Original title: the U.S. military launched an air strike in Northeast Syria, claiming to kill a senior leader of Al Qaeda
US defense officials confirmed on September 30 local time that US drones launched air strikes near Idlib Province in Syria on September 20. The official said that the air raid killed Abu Ahmed, a senior leader of Al Qaeda.
John Lisby, spokesman of the US central command, said that Ahmed was responsible for planning, financing and approving cross regional al Qaeda attacks.
U.S. Navy Lieutenant Josie Lynne Lenny said, "there are preliminary indications that the U.S. military hit the target, and there is no indication that the attack caused civilian casualties."
Earlier, McKenzie, commander of the US central command, admitted that the air raid launched by the US military in Kabul, Afghanistan at the end of August did not actually kill the so-called "terrorists", but mistakenly killed 10 civilians, including 7 children. U.S. Defense Department spokesman John Kirby said the U.S. military would investigate the air raid, but also revealed that the purpose of the investigation was to "make recommendations, not take action".
The U.S. military has a number of military bases in the Kurdish armed control zone in Northeast Syria, and transports supplies and weapons and equipment from Iraq to Syria. In August 2014, the United States began to carry out air strikes on the targets of the extremist organization "Islamic state" in Iraq, and expanded the scope of air strikes to Syria in September of that year. In the same month, the United States initiated the formation of an international coalition against the "Islamic state". The Syrian government accused the international coalition led by the United States of "illegally occupying" Syrian territory, saying that its air strikes had led to a large number of Syrian civilians killed and injured. (CCTV reporter Xu Zhen)