U.S. military says drone strike killed al Qaeda leader in Syria


An airstrike in northwest Syria on Friday killed Abdul Hamid al-Matar, a senior al Qaeda leader, the U.S. military said.
In a statement, Army Maj. John Rigsbee, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command, said al Qaeda "uses Syria as a base for threats reaching into Syria, Iraq, and beyond," and al-Matar's death will rattle the terror group's "ability to further plot and carry out global attacks threatening U.S. citizens, our partners, and innocent civilians."
On Wednesday, a small U.S. military base in southern Syria near the border with Jordan was hit by a coordinated drone and rocket attack. No deaths or injuries of U.S. troops were reported.
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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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