Senior Al-Qaida Leader Killed in Airstrike

An airstrike in northwest Syria over the weekend killed a top al-Qaida commander and two other fighters, activists told the Associated Press on Saturday, although it is not yet clear whether the airstrike came from Russian planes or those belonging to the U.S.-led coalition.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Abdul Mohsen Abdallah Ibrahim al-Charekh, a Saudi man better known by the name of Sanafi al-Nasr, was killed Thursday in an airstrike near the town of Dana in northern Syria. He was targeted and killed along with two other members – one Saudi and one Moroccan – of al-Qaida’s local affiliate, the Nusra Front.

An Egyptian Nusra Front commander reportedly managed to escape the airstrike alive, according to the Observatory’s chief Rami Abdulrahman, who said that all four of the militants had been personally dispatched to Syria by al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri.

While an anonymous U.S. official told the Associated Press it was an American drone that had targeted al-Charekh, the assumed leader of al-Qaida operations in Syria, he said the government was waiting for confirmation that he had actually been killed in the strike.

Airstrikes Targeting ISIS Kill 40

Airstrikes targeting a motorcade belonging to the Islamic State group killed at least 40 jihadists in central Syria over the weekend, Agence France-Presse reports.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told AFP that unidentified warplanes hit the 16-vehicle convoy Saturday night as it passed through Hama province.

While the Observatory’s chief was unsure as to whether the planes belonged to either Russia or President Bashar al-Assad’s government, he was certain they did not belong to the U.S.-led coalition.

The ISIS convoy was reportedly hit as it was traveling from the jihadist group’s self-declared capital of Raqqa in northern Syria into the countryside of Hama province. Syrian government warplanes have been bombarding areas near ISIS positions in eastern Hama province on an almost daily basis.

Moscow Is Defending ‘National Interests’ in Syria, Not Assad: Russian PM

Russian prime minister Dmitry Medvedev said Saturday that Russia is fighting to protect its “national interests” in Syria, not to prop up President Bashar al-Assad, Agence France-Presse reports.

“Of course we are not fighting for specific leaders, we are defending our national interests, on the one hand,” Medvedev said on state television.

“And secondly, we have a request from the lawful authorities (of Syria). That is the basis we are working on,” he said, adding that it did not matter to Moscow who heads the government of Syria as long as it is not the Islamic State group.

Medvedev went on to express his frustration that the United States had declined to host a Russian delegation, led by Medvedev, to discuss matters pertaining to Syria.

He said that U.S. military operations in Syria had “practically zero” impact on ISIS and “only Russia’s intervention changed the situation.”

Top Image: A Russian Su-27 jet, part of the Russian Knights aerial acrobatics team, lands at Kubinka Air Base, in Kubinka, outside Moscow on 15 October 2015. In Kubinka, the town’s lifeblood stems from a vast workshop that upgrades warplanes of the kind Russia is using in Syria, and support for Moscow’s Syria campaign is strong among the town’s residents. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin)

Recommended Reads

• War on the Rocks: Russia’s Arsenal in Syria: What Do We Know?
• Los Angeles Times: For Those Left in Syria, Life Among the Ruins Takes on a Ghostly Air
• The Washington Post: The United States’ Surprise Allies in Syria
• Foreign Affairs: How to Work With Russia in Syria
• The Wall Street Journal: Syrian Regime, Backed by Russia, Iran and Hezbollah, Expands Ground Offensive to Aleppo