Report: Senior Al-Qaeda leader killed in Syria drone strike

A senior Al-Qaeda leader has been killed in a drone strike in Syria, reports Fox News citing US defence officials. 

Salim Abu-Ahmad was killed in a US airstrike near Idlib, Syria on September 20. He was responsible for planning, funding, and approving trans-regional al Qaeda attacks.

"There are no indications of civilian casualties," US defence officials said Thursday. 

The Associated Press reported September 20 that a drone strike hit a vehicle traveling on a rural road in rebel-controlled northwestern Syria, killing at least one person.

The Civil Defence team, known as White Helmets, said the unidentified body was lifted from the car along the Idlib-Binnish road east of Idlib province.

US Central Command said American forces had conducted a "kinetic counterterrorism strike" near Idlib province targeting a senior leader of the militant group Al-Qaeda.

"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," said Navy Lt Josie Lynne Lenny in a statement. 

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the vehicle had been carrying a militant linked to Al-Qaeda.

The US has carried out attacks in Idlib before, targeting al Qaeda militants and the leader of the Islamic State group, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who was hiding in the province after fleeing from eastern Syria.