US says it killed ISIS chief in Syria in drone strike

The head of the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group in Syria died on Tuesday in a US-led drone strike, the US Department of Defense said.

Maher al-Agal, one of the group’s five most senior leaders, was killed while riding a motorcycle near Jindayris, in the northwest of the country, and one of his top aides was seriously injured, a spokesman for the Department of Defense Central Command said. Defense, Lieutenant Colonel Dave Eastburn.

“Extensive planning was put in place for this operation to ensure its successful execution. A review indicates that there were no civilian casualties,” the statement added.

Al-Agal was responsible for developing IS networks outside Iraq and Syria.

The assassination would be another blow to the militant group’s efforts to reorganize itself as a guerrilla force after losing large swaths of territory. In February, the top IS leader blew himself up during a US military strike in Syria.

A US government official told Reuters news agency that the Islamic State leader, still at the beginning of the US operation, set off a bomb and died in the blast along with some members of his family.