CENTCOM: US Military Kills Top IS Leader in Syria

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Facts

• The US military has announced that it killed Khalid Aydd Ahmad al-Jabouri — who it accused of participating in the planning of Islamic State (IS) attacks in Europe — in an undisclosed location in Syria via a drone strike. No civilians were reported to have been killed or injured.¹
• United States Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a statement that al-Jabouri was a senior leader who 'developed the leadership structure for [IS].”²
• CENTCOM chief Gen. Michael Kurilla said, though IS has become 'degraded' since its territorial defeat in 2019, the group is still able 'to conduct operations within the region with a desire to strike beyond the Middle East.'³
• The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) claimed that the strike occurred in the northwestern Syrian region of Idlib. The SOHR also reported that al-Jabouri was killed while speaking on the phone as he walked in the open near the place he was staying.⁴
• A UN report claimed that IS and its affiliates posed a threat to international peace and security in the second half of 2022 and that the threat increased in and around conflict zones in which it has a presence.⁵
• The US has continued to target IS's leadership across Syria. Last month, Hamza al-Homsi was killed in a US raid, and Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi was killed in February 2021.⁶

Sources: ¹BBC News, ²CNN, ³France 24, ⁴Syriahr, ⁵Arab news and ⁶Sky news.

Narratives

• Pro-establishment narrative, as provided by CNN. It's always good news when an IS leader is killed, as it mitigates the group's ability to conduct terror attacks outside of its areas of influence. The US will continue to counter IS and the threat it poses to the world at large.
• Establishment-critical narrative, as provided by Newsweek. This operation was an illegal violation of Syria's sovereignty. Though Damascus and Washington agree that IS is a terrorist organization, the US had no right to violate Syria's airspace in order to continue its policy of extrajudicial killings under the guise of counter-terrorism.