Air strike kills senior Al Qaeda-linked militant in Syria as US continues ‘ninja missile’ campaign

Washington launched covert assassination programme against militants in Syria in 2015

Images of a destroyed car said to belong to Muhammad Salah Al Za'bir suggest a Hellfire R9X missile may have been used in the attack. AFP

A US air strike has killed a senior operative of an Al Qaeda-affiliated group in north-west Syria, the US military said on Friday, as Washington continues an opaque drone and special forces campaign targeting militants in the region.

The strike resulted in the death of Muhammad Salah Al Za'bir on Thursday, according to US Central Command, America's military headquarters in the Middle East. He was a prominent member of militant group Hurras Al Din, which was formed in Syria in 2018, two years after a split between Jabhat Al Nusra – a predecessor of Syria’s ruling Hayat Tahrir Al Sham – and Al Qaeda’s central leadership.

Since around 2015, the US has waged a shadowy drone and special forces programme in Syria led by the CIA and the Joint Special Operations Command. Initially it launched attacks on ISIS but Al Qaeda remnants have also become a significant target.

In December last year, the US launched dozens of air strikes against ISIS in Syria after former president Bashar Al Assad’s regime collapsed. ISIS are now at a low ebb in the country, ground down by several opponents, from HTS to Kurdish militias backed by the US and local tribes.

“The air strike is part of Centcom's ongoing commitment, along with partners in the region, to disrupt and degrade efforts by terrorists to plan, organise, and conduct attacks against civilians and military personnel from the US, our allies, and our partners throughout the region and beyond,” Centcom said.

Last week, Hurras Al Din said it had disbanded, apparently on the orders of central Al Qaeda leadership. The group, which includes foreign fighters, had been under pressure in northern Syria for years after clashing with HTS, who arrested and assassinated scores of its leaders, part of a power struggle in Idlib.

An MQ-9 Reaper drone at an airbase in Afghanistan. The US has been waging a shadowy drone and special forces campaign in Syria led by the CIA. Photo: US Air Force

Idlib was the last Syrian rebel stronghold until the rapid collapse of the Assad regime in December. Before then, experts say Hurras Al Din and HTS co-ordinated on some operations, before their power struggle began around 2021.

After HTS consolidated control of Idlib and allied with smaller rebel groups, it broke out in a lightning offensive last month that imploded Mr Al Assad’s regime.

'Ninja missiles'

Hurras Al Din has also been hit sporadically by a US drone campaign, which also attacked ISIS leaders, often in densely populated areas.

To reduce civilian casualties, the US air campaign has sometimes relied on “knife bomb” Hellfire R9X missiles, also known as the “ninja missile”, which features an array of blades and no explosive warhead.

Images on social media of a destroyed car said to belong to Mr Al Za'bir suggest such a weapon may have been used in the attack that killed him, because the body of the vehicle is sliced and mangled and there are no signs of fire or shrapnel associated with explosively armed Hellfire missiles.

The R9X is first thought to have been used in 2017 against Abu Khayr Al Masri, an Al Qaeda commander in Idlib. Since then, the “kinetic” weapon has also been used to kill Al Qaeda commander Ayman Zawahiri in Afghanistan in 2022. That attack followed a disastrous US strike on a suspected ISIS hideout in Kabul that killed 10 civilians during the city's fall to the Taliban in 2021.