Militant commanders among eight killed in Syrian airstrike

BEIRUT — An airstrike hit several cars in northwestern Syria, killing at least eight people, including al-Qaida-linked fighters and a senior commander with a Chinese Islamic militant faction, an activist group and a local jihadi commander said Monday.

The attack occurred late Sunday on a road leading from the town of Sarmada to the Bab al-Hawa area on the border with Turkey, said the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and a local commander with the Fatah al-Sham Front, an al-Qaida-linked group. The militant spoke via text messages on condition of anonymity because of security concerns.

It was not immediately clear who was behind the attack, but the Observatory’s chief, Rami Abdurrahman, said it is widely believed to have been carried out by the U.S.-led coalition.

The U.S. has killed some of al-Qaida’s most senior commanders in Syria over the past two years in airstrikes.

Those targeted included members of the so-called Khorasan group, which Washington describes as an internal branch of alQaida that plans attacks against Western interests.

The Observatory said eight people were killed in the airstrike, including three jihadi commanders. The dead include a senior al-Qaida commander known as Khattab al-Qahtani, who was from the Gulf region and fought for the group in Afghanistan.

Abu Omar al-Turkistani, a commander with the Turkistan Islamic Party, and a Syrian al-Qaida commander known as Abu Muatasem al-Deiri were also killed.

The Turkistan Islamic Party mainly consists of minority Uighurs from China, many of whom have traveled to Syria to help battle President Bashar Assad’s forces.