U.S. forces killed a top military leader of the militant group Hurras al-Din last week, the latest in a series of recent attacks targeting organizers and leaders of the al-Qaeda-affiliated group in northwestern Syria.
The airstrike on Feb. 23 — but was not disclosed to the public until March 1 — killed Muhammed Yusuf Ziya Talay, described as the senior military leader for the group, while he was traveling by car. CENTCOM released a short video clip showing the attack on the car believed to be occupied by Talay. It was traveling alone and was quickly destroyed.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group that in part tracks actions by the U.S.-led international coalition operating in Syria, reported on the attack on Feb. 23, noting that a drone was believed to have taken out a car traveling in the Idlib countryside in the country’s north.
In its statement, CENTCOM said that the strike is part of a wider mission to “disrupt and degrade efforts by terrorists to plan, organize, and conduct attacks against civilians and military personnel from the U.S., our allies, and our partners throughout the region and beyond.” Hurras al-Din formed in the Syrian Civil War and has close ties to al-Qaeda. The group announced it was dissolving following the collapse of the Assad regime in Syria, but the United States has continued to target members and leaders.
The United States has been steadily targeting members of the group since late summer 2024, alongside the wider and ongoing campaign against ISIS remnants in Iraq and Syria. Since the fall of Assad’s government in December 2024 to rebel forces, those targeted attacks have been ramping up, with U.S. forces carrying out several airstrikes in northwest Syria around the Idlib province.
The Feb. 23 strike was one of several in the space of just over a week taking out several commanders of the group. On Feb. 15, an airstrike in Idlib killed a senior finance official, while on Feb. 22 another killed Wasim Tahsin Bayraqdar, described as a “senior leadership facilitator.”
The United States has approximately 2,000 troops in Syria, in support of Operation Inherent Resolve, the ongoing anti-ISIS mission. Another 2,500 are in Iraq as part of the same mission.
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