The Defense Department announced today that Haydar Kirkan, a veteran al Qaeda operative who was plotting against the West, was killed in an airstrike in Idlib, Syria on Oct. 17. Kirkan was one of several al Qaeda leaders targeted in Afghanistan, Syria and Yemen during the month of October. The Pentagon emphasized that the airstrikes demonstrate the “transregional nature” of al Qaeda.
Al Nusrah Front, al Qaeda’s official branch in Syria, raided the 13th Division’s headquarters and seized its weapons. The 13th Division, which has received US-made TOW missiles, has long coexisted with the jihadists in northwestern Syria. But that all changed in the past 48 hours as al Qaeda’s men stormed its locations.
The Uighur jihadist group, with its longstanding ties to al Qaeda, continues to play a pivotal role assisting Al Nusrah Front in northwestern Syria.
Al Nusrah Front, al Qaeda’s official branch in Syria, claims to have overrun the Abu Duhour airbase in Idlib. Al Nusrah also says that more than 100 of Bashar al Assad’s fighters were killed and an additional 60 or so captured during the fighting.
The Al Nusrah Front, al Qaeda’s official branch in Syria, has issued a statement disavowing the massacre of Druze civilians in Idlib last week. The group doesn’t deny that its fighters are responsible for the slaughter, but claims that the jihadists disobeyed specific “directives” banning such acts.
With victory over Assad’s forces at the military camp, the al Qaeda-led coalition continues to overrun regime positions in Idlib province.
Propaganda photos posted by the Al Nusrah Front, al Qaeda’s official branch in Syria, show what appears to be more than one hundred new graduates at a camp in Idlib.
The new video shows the group’s role in the recent fighting at Jisr al Shughur. The Turkistan Islamic Party has long fought in Syria alongside the Al Nusrah Front, al Qaeda’s official branch in Syria.
