Al Qaeda suicide bombing pioneer killed in Syria raid

washington — The US military said on Wednesday that it had killed eleven Al Qaeda operatives, including a veteran leader and suicide bombing pioneer, in a bombing raid in Syria.

The Pentagon said Abu Hani Al Masri, the Al Qaeda veteran, was one of those killed in the precision air strikes near Idlib carried out on February 3-4.

Al Masri was an early official in Al Qaeda, overseeing the group’s training camps in Afghanistan in the 1980s and 1990s as he worked with Al Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden and current leader Ayman Al Zawahiri.

There “he recruited, indoctrinated, trained and equipped thousands of terrorists who subsequently spread throughout the region and the world”, the Pentagon said in a statement.

“These strikes disrupt Al Qaeda’s ability to plot and direct external attacks targeting the US and our interests worldwide,” said Pentagon spokesman Jeff Davis.

Idlib province is largely occupied by the former Syrian branch of Al Qaeda, Fateh Al Sham, which has been allied to several Syrian rebel groups fighting the government.

Volunteer killed in rebel attack

Rebel fire on an aid distribution centre in Aleppo city has killed three people, including a Red Crescent volunteer and a child.

The Syrian Arab Red Crescent (Sarc) and the International Committee of the Red Cross confirmed the volunteer’s death in Wednesday’s incident.

“One Sarc staff member was killed. Seven Sarc volunteers and staff were injured, three of them severely,” a statement said.

“Two beneficiaries who had