US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced on Tuesday that they had killed Muhammad ‘Abd-al-Wahhab al-Ahmad in a strike last week. Ahmad was, according to the statement, a member of “Ansar al-Islam.”
Few details were offered about the strike, which happened on Thursday, October 2 according to reports. Ansar al-Islam presumably means Jamaat Ansar al-Islam, which is an organization known to be active within Syria and, as suggested by the statement, aligned with al-Qaeda.
The man they killed was claimed in the statement to be an “attack planner” for the group, though there was not substantial information available on this person or his history before he was killed.
Admiral Brad Cooper | Image from PicRyl, public domain
CENTCOM commander Admiral Brad Cooper says that the US intends to remain in the Middle East to “disrupt and defeat” militants. The US has continued to attack various Islamist groups active within Syria on the grounds they’re in line with al-Qaeda.
The one faction they are not going after, however, is the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which was al-Qaeda’s formal affiliate within Syria for years, and now dominates the central government in Damascus. The US removed the HTS from the list of designated terrorist groups back in June.
While the administration has been eager to help the HTS become palatable on the international stage, those al-Qaeda aligned groups that are opposed to the HTS are finding themselves increasingly in the US crosshairs. This has included Hurras al-Din and now, it seems, also includes Jamaat Ansar al-Islam.
