{"id":413819,"date":"2026-01-17T23:09:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T23:09:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/413819\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T23:09:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T23:09:09","slug":"u-s-forces-kill-al-qaeda-affiliate-leader-linked-to-ambush-on-americans-in-syria-officials-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/413819\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. forces kill Al-Qaeda affiliate leader linked to ambush on Americans in Syria, officials say"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A U.S. military strike in northwest Syria resulted in the death of a leader affiliated with Al-Qaeda who was linked to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/shots-us-syria-troops-palmyra\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">an ISIS attack last month<\/a> that resulted in the death of two U.S. Army soldiers and a U.S. civilian interpreter, the U.S. Central Command announced Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>U.S. Central Command, which oversees U.S. military operations in the Middle East,  conducted the strike on Jan. 16, killing Bilal Hasan al-Jasim, authorities said. Al-Jasim was allegedly directly connected with the ISIS gunman who killed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/syria-american-soldiers-killed-identified-iowa-national-guard\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Sgt. Edgar Brian Torres-Tovar, Sgt. William Nathaniel Howard<\/a> and the interpreter and injured three other U.S. service members in Palmyra, Syria, on Dec. 13.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The death of a terrorist operative linked to the deaths of three Americans demonstrates our resolve in pursuing terrorists who attack our forces,&#8221; Central Command Commander Adm. Brad Cooper said in a statement. &#8220;There is no safe place for those who conduct, plot, or inspire attacks on American citizens and our warfighters. We will find you.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>After last month&#8217;s ambush attack, President Trump vowed &#8220;very serious retaliation&#8221; in a Truth Social post.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>On Dec. 19, the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/u-s-strikes-isis-targets-in-syria-after-3-americans-killed-last-week\/\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">U.S. launched airstrikes against ISIS<\/a>\u00a0targets in Syria in retaliation. More than 70 targets were hit in those strikes, a U.S. official told CBS News at the time.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Last week, the U.S. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/us-airstrikes-isis-targets-syria-central-command\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">launched more attacks<\/a> in Syria, conducting large-scale strikes against multiple Islamic State targets, according to Central Command. In total, the operation &#8220;Hawkeye Strike&#8221; resulted in U.S. and partner forces hitting more than 100 ISIS infrastructure and weapons site targets, officials said.<\/p>\n<p>In an earlier statement on Saturday, Cooper said the U.S. was welcoming efforts by all parties in Syria &#8220;to prevent escalation and pursue resolution through dialogue&#8221; and urged the Syrian government to stop attacks in areas between Aleppo and al-Tabqa.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Aggressively pursuing ISIS and relentlessly applying military pressure requires teamwork among Syrian partners in coordination with U.S. and coalition forces. A Syria at peace with itself and its neighbors is essential to peace and stability across the region,&#8221; Cooper said.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\n              Go deeper with The Free Press\n            <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A U.S. military strike in northwest Syria resulted in the death of a leader affiliated with Al-Qaeda who&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":413820,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,1207,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":{"0":"post-413819","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-syria","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-united-states-of-america","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","15":"tag-us","16":"tag-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=413819"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413819\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/413820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=413819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=413819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=413819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}