CIA, US special forces launch secret Syria drones killing campaign targeting individual militant leaders

WASHINGTON: The CIA and US Special Operations forces have launched a secret campaign to hunt terrorism suspects in Syria as part of a targeted killing programme run separately from the broader US military offensive against the Islamic State, US officials say.

The CIA and the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) were flying drones over Syria in a collaboration responsible for recent strikes against senior Islamic State operatives, the officials said. Among those killed was a British militant thought to be an architect of the terrorist group’s effort to use social media to incite attacks in the US, the officials said.

The clandestine programme represents an escalation of the CIA’s involvement in the war in Syria, enlisting the agency’s Counter-Terrorism Centre against a militant group that many officials believe has eclipsed al-Qaeda as a threat.

Although the centre has been given an expanded role in identifying and locating senior Islamic State figures, US officials said the strikes were being carried out exclusively by the JSOC. The officials said the programme was aimed at suspects deemed “high-value targets”.

“These people are being identified and targeted through a separate effort,” said a senior US official familiar with the operation, referring to the British militant, Junaid Hussain, and others killed in a recent weeks. Spokesmen for the CIA and the US Special Operations Command declined to comment.

The decision to enlist the CIA and JSOC reflects rising anxiety among US counter-terrorism officials about the danger the Islamic State poses, as well as frustration with the failure of conventional strikes to degrade the group’s strength.

Against that backdrop, the Obama administration has turned again to two of its preferred weapons against terrorist groups: the Counter-Terrorism Centre, which pioneered the use of armed drones and led the search for Osama bin Laden, and the JSOC, which includes the elite commando unit that carried out the raid in Pakistan that killed the al-Qaeda chief. – Washington Post