ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The United States military on Friday confirmed their forces killed a senior Islamic State (ISIS) member in northwest Syria’s Idlib province earlier this week, originally reported by Syrian media.
In a statement US Central Command (CENTCOM) said it “conducted a successful raid in northern Syria on August 19, killing a senior ISIS member and key financier who planned attacks in Syria and Iraq. He had relationships throughout the ISIS network in the region, posing a direct threat to US and Coalition forces and the new Syrian Government.”
Syrian state media on Wednesday identified the senior Iraqi ISIS leader as Salah Numan and reported he was killed by US-led anti-ISIS coalition forces in an airdrop raid in the town of Atmeh.
Numan was responsible for “coordinating and organizing a number of cells affiliated with the organization inside Syrian territory,” state television al-Ikhbariya said, citing an unnamed source.
Three witnesses told AFP on Wednesday that the raid took place around midnight, reporting they heard aircraft and gunfire. Numan tried to escape by jumping from a balcony but was killed when coalition forces opened fire.
“Together with our partners and allies, CENTCOM remains steadfast in our commitment of ensuring the lasting defeat of ISIS,” said CENTCOM commander Brad Cooper.
The US-led coalition has carried out numerous raids against ISIS operatives in Idlib. ISIS emir Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s successor, Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, was killed in Atmeh in a 2022 operation conducted with Iraqi intelligence support.
ISIS rose to power and seized swathes of Iraqi and Syrian land in 2014, declaring a so-called “caliphate.” The group was declared territorially defeated in Syria in 2019, two years after its defeat in Iraq. Despite its military defeat, it continues to pose security risks, particularly in the vast eastern deserts of Syria.
Last month, a Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) spokesperson told Rudaw that an estimated 2,000 ISIS militants remain active in the Syrian desert.
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