U.S. forces carried out a strike on a \u201csenior al-Qaida leader\u201d in Syria today, a U.S. Central Command spokesman said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cInitial indications are that we struck the individual we were aiming for, and there are no indications of civilian casualties as a result of the strike,\u201d said Navy Lt.. Josie Lynne Lenny, a CENTCOM spokeswoman<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lenny declined comment on the name of the senior al-Qaida leader or the method of the strike.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rescue workers and a war monitor described it as a drone strike that hit a vehicle traveling on a rural road in rebel-controlled northwestern Syria, killing at least one person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Civil Defense team, known as White Helmets, said the unidentified body was lifted from the car along the Idlib-Binnish road east of Idlib province.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The totally charred vehicle, split in the middle, lay on the side of the rural road in an orchard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, based in Britain, said the U.S.-led coalition was believed to be behind the strike on the vehicle, which carried a militant from one of the radical groups operating in the province. The Observatory didn\u2019t identify the group but said it was linked to al-Qaida.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The U.S. has carried out attacks in Idlib before, targeting al-Qaida militants and the leader of the Islamic State group, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi who was hiding in the province after fleeing from eastern Syria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Large parts of Idlib and neighboring Aleppo provinces remain in the hands of Syrian armed opposition, dominated by radical groups including the once al-Qaida-linked Hayat Tahrir al-Sham,. There are also over 4 million civilians living in the area, most of them displaced from previous bouts of violence in Syria\u2019s 10-year conflict. The Syrian government has vowed to restore control of all of territories outside of its control, but a cease-fire negotiated last year in Idlib has tenaciously held.<\/p>\n\n\n\t