US says it killed 11 al-Qaeda operatives in Syria air strikes

US forces killed 11 members of al-Qaeda in two air strikes near Idlib in Syria, this month, including a former ally of Osama Bin Laden, the Pentagon said.

Captain Jeff Davis, a spokesman, said 10 operatives were killed in a single strike on 3 February.

A second strike on 4 February killed Abu Hani al-Masri, who had close ties to the late al-Qaeda leader, he said.

Al-Masri is said to have set up and run al-Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan during the 1980s and 1990s.

He also had close ties to Ayman al-Zawahiri, who became the leader of al-Qaeda when Bin Laden was killed by US forces in 2011.

Read the whole story from BBC.

Featured image courtesy of Getty Images.