The US military killed a “senior Al-Qaeda affiliated attack planner” in an airstrike in Syria on October 2. The jihadi was a member of Ansar Islam, a terrorist organization that has operated in Iraq and Syria for nearly three decades.
US Central Command (CENTCOM) forces conducted the strike in Syria that killed Muhammad Abd al Wahhab al Ahmad, and described Ansar Islam as “an Al Qaeda affiliated terrorist group.” According to Syrian press reports, Ahmad was killed in Idlib province, the stronghold of the Syrian government, as he traveled in a vehicle.
The US military has targeted leaders of Hurras al Din, Al Qaeda’s official branch in Syria, four times before the jihadist group disbanded in late February 2025.
The strike takes place as the US government and its Western allies are wooing Ahmad al Sharaa, the president of Syria and the previous head of Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS), which was Al Qaeda’s branch in Syria and a US-listed Foreign Terrorist Organization until the US government removed the designation in July 2025.
Sharaa, who used to be known as Abu Mohammad al Jolani, remains on the US list of Specially Designated Global Terrorists. Despite his long history as an Al Qaeda terrorist and the existing designation, US President Donald Trump met with Sharaa in May 2025, and Sharaa was welcomed to the US to address the United Nations General Assembly in September 2025. Additionally, Admiral Brad Cooper, the CENTCOM commander, met with Sharaa in September, even as his forces continued to target Al Qaeda operatives sheltered by Sharaa’s government.
Background on Ansar Islam
Ansar Islam was formed in 2001, operated in northeastern Iraq near the Iranian border, and was primarily made up of Kurdish jihadists, though it later broadened its ranks to include Arab members. The group immediately allied with Abu Musab al Zarqawi, the founder of Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), and fought alongside AQI against US forces after the invasion of Iraq in 2003.
The US government listed Ansar Islam as a Foreign Terrorist Organization in 2004 and noted the terror group “has close links to and support from Al Qaeda.”
“Al Qaeda and Usama bin Laden participated in the formation and funding of the group, which has provided safehaven to Al Qaeda in northeastern Iraq,” the US State Department noted in its 2004 designation. “Ansar al Islam trained in Al Qaeda camps in Afghanistan.”
Ansar Islam began operating in Syria in 2011 at the onset of the Syrian Civil War. The group fought alongside the Al Nusrah Front, the predecessor of Hayat Tahrir al Sham, and then later allied with Al Qaeda’s Hurras al Din. Today, Ansar Islam is based in the Syrian province of Idlib and operates there with the permission of Sharaa’s followers.
Sharaa and his government have not taken action against Ansar Islam nor any other Al Qaeda-allied terror group that operates in Syria, such as the Turkistan Islamic Party, despite pressure from the US to expel foreign terrorists.
