{"id":414141,"date":"2026-01-18T03:05:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T03:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/414141\/"},"modified":"2026-01-18T03:05:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T03:05:11","slug":"us-carries-out-lethal-strike-against-al-qaeda-affiliate-leader-in-syria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/414141\/","title":{"rendered":"US carries out lethal strike against al Qaeda affiliate leader in Syria"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph_elevate\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmkiyq10l005q27p20v0ift3o@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">\n            The US on Saturday announced it conducted a lethal strike in Syria on an al Qaeda affiliate leader it says had direct ties to an ISIS attacker who <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2025\/12\/13\/politics\/two-us-army-soldiers-killed-in-syria\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">killed three Americans<\/a> in early December.\n    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph_elevate\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmkiyqfcr00043b6porgpota5@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">\n            \u201cThe death of a terrorist operative linked to the deaths of three Americans demonstrates our resolve in pursuing terrorists who attack our forces,\u201d Adm. Brad Cooper, commander of US Central Command, <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/CENTCOM\/article\/2012615404363894937\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">said in a release on X.<\/a>\n    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph_elevate\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmkiyqfcr00053b6p42hknyb0@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">\n            CENTCOM said Bilal Hasan al-Jasim \u201cwas an experienced terrorist leader\u201d and \u201cwas directly connected\u201d to the ISIS gunman who killed two US service members and a civilian interpreter on December 13, 2025, in Palmyra, Syria.\n    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph_elevate\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmkiyq24j00003b6puj906yco@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">\n            CNN has reach out to CENTCOM for comment on the strike and details on the leader\u2019s alleged ties to the December attack.\n    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph_elevate\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmkj1bb7t000b3b6pnwqkfk0a@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">\n            Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth responded to CENTCOM\u2019s post, <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/PeteHegseth\/status\/2012643358678688011?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">writing on X<\/a>, \u201cWe will never forget, and never relent.\u201d\n    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph_elevate\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmkiyqfcr00063b6p8n01t6yn@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">\n            The US <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2026\/01\/10\/politics\/syria-strike-retaliatory-isis\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">has been retaliating against<\/a> ISIS following the deadly ambush through a series of strikes under the campaign titled \u201cOperation Hawkeye Strike.\u201d CENTCOM said in the Saturday statement that the operation has hit more than 100 ISIS infrastructure and weapons site targets. Hundreds of American troops continue to be deployed in Syria as part of the US\u2019 long-standing mission to combat ISIS.\n    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph_elevate\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmkiz49pa000f3b6pncljhmsr@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">\n            ISIS has not claimed responsibility for the December attack that killed the two US service members and civilian interpreter.<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2025\/12\/17\/politics\/syria-partner-forces-attack-us-military\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> CNN previously reported<\/a> that Syria\u2019s Ministry of Interior Affairs said the attacker was a part of the country\u2019s Internal Security Service.\n    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph_elevate\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmkj0crju000l3b6p30p0cwv9@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">\n            Syrian leaders were quick to distance the gunman from the country\u2019s fledgling government, which has received strong American support in recent months.\n    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph_elevate\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmkj1ivzc000f3b6pw1efbyx4@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">\n            This story has been updated with additional details.\n    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The US on Saturday announced it conducted a lethal strike in Syria on an al Qaeda affiliate leader&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":414142,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":{"0":"post-414141","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-united-states","11":"tag-united-states-of-america","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","14":"tag-us","15":"tag-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414141","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=414141"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414141\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/414142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=414141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=414141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=414141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}