A drone strike near the Takfiri group, ISIL’s so-called de facto Syrian capital Raqa killed an insurgent commander heading to Aleppo province on orders from the organization’s chief.
A drone strike near the Takfiri group, ISIL's so-called de facto Syrian capital Raqa killed an insurgent commander heading to Aleppo province on orders from the organization’s chief, a monitoring group said Thursday.
His death is the latest in a series of blows to the jihadist group in recent weeks, and comes days after Russian-backed Syrian government forces recaptured the ancient city of Palmyra from its grip.
Abu al-Hija, a high-ranking Tunisian ISIL commander, was killed late on Wednesday in a strike by a drone that was "most likely operated by the US-led coalition", the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
He had travelled to Syria from Iraq just 24 hours earlier at the behest of ISIL chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the monitoring group said.
Abu al-Hija is the latest senior ISIL member to be killed in recent weeks.
Last week, US forces killed ISIL deputy leader Abd ar-Rahman Mustafa al-Qaduli.
Earlier this month one of the group's most notorious commanders, Omar al-Shishani, was also killed.
"ISIL's leadership is being debilitated," Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.
"Without infiltration of ISIL, these killings would not have been possible."
The latest killing came after Syrian government troops backed by Russian forces seized Palmyra on Sunday.
The recapture of Palmyra, known as the "Pearl of the Desert" for its colonnaded alleyways and stunning temples, was seen as the biggest blow so far in the war against ISIL in Syria.
Abu al-Hija had been ordered by Baghdadi to travel from Iraq to Aleppo province near Turkey's border, to oversee fighting between the Takfiri insurgents and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces.
"The fighting, which has been especially fierce in the past four or five days, could lead to ISIL being expelled from the area and pushed eastwards into Raqa province," Abdel Rahman said.
