A Syrian Kurdish security official said on Monday that a drone strike launched by the U.S.-led anti-Islamic State coalition killed an ISIS militant while he was riding a motorcycle through the village of Hamam al-Turkman, which is currently controlled by Syrian militia forces aligned with Turkey.
The Associated Press pointed to locally-sourced photos on social media “showing what is reportedly the remains of the militant’s body next to the destroyed motorcycle.”
AFP quoted a local resident who said he “heard aircraft and then a first strike, followed by a second one less than a minute later.”
“I came to the site of the strikes and found a charred body,” the witness said.
Another area resident identified the target as 35-year-old Syrian national Ammar al-Yehya Ibn Ali and described him as a “former member of ISIS.”
A #drone strike in northern #Syria killed a suspected member of the #ISIS group, a war monitor and an AFP correspondent say. https://t.co/Su6dV06Kxe
— Al Arabiya English (@AlArabiya_Eng) October 10, 2022
The U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) has confirmed launching several strikes against high-profile ISIS members in northern Syria since the beginning of October, including an unusual helicopter raid last Thursday into territory directly controlled by the regime in Damascus. CENTCOM did not immediately comment on the reported Monday strike.
AFP mentioned that it had difficulty persuading the populace of Hamam al-Turkman to discuss the attack because they fear reprisals.
ISIS remnants have grown very aggressive at terrorizing Syrian civilians and shaking down business owners for cash. Those who refuse to pay up are often threatened with bombs and told their families will be killed if they turn to the authorities for help.
Some of the shakedown demands have been made through social media, with ISIS jihadis sending the victims chat messages instructing them to hand over cash payments euphemistically described as zakat (“charitable donations”) to designated representatives.
The village of Hama al-Turkman is located near the city of Tal-Abyad, which was taken over by invading Turkish forces and their militia allies during Turkey’s “Operation Peace Spring” in 2019. Turkey claims to have brought order and security to the area by cleansing it of “terrorists,” but the Turkish government primarily uses that term to refer to Syrian Kurdish militias, which it considers appendages of the PKK separatist organization in Turkey.
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