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Pentagon: U.S. Strike Kills Senior Islamic State Leader in Syria

A drone raid in Syria takes out an Islamic State leader who was in charge of foreign fighters, a day after his brother is killed in Iraq.

A general view shows smoke rising in the rebel-held town of Douma, northeast of the capital Damascus, following reported heavy shelling and air strikes  by government forces on the town killing nearly a dozen and injuring many children on June 16, 2015, according the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights. AFP PHOTO / ABD DOUMANY        (Photo credit should read ABD DOUMANY/AFP/Getty Images)
A general view shows smoke rising in the rebel-held town of Douma, northeast of the capital Damascus, following reported heavy shelling and air strikes by government forces on the town killing nearly a dozen and injuring many children on June 16, 2015, according the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights. AFP PHOTO / ABD DOUMANY (Photo credit should read ABD DOUMANY/AFP/Getty Images)
A general view shows smoke rising in the rebel-held town of Douma, northeast of the capital Damascus, following reported heavy shelling and air strikes by government forces on the town killing nearly a dozen and injuring many children on June 16, 2015, according the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights. AFP PHOTO / ABD DOUMANY (Photo credit should read ABD DOUMANY/AFP/Getty Images)

A U.S. military drone strike in Syria has killed a senior Islamic State leader who was in charge of mobilizing foreign fighters and ferrying supplies to the battlefield, Pentagon officials said Thursday.

A U.S. military drone strike in Syria has killed a senior Islamic State leader who was in charge of mobilizing foreign fighters and ferrying supplies to the battlefield, Pentagon officials said Thursday.

The June 16 bombing raid in Shaddadi took out Tariq bin Tahar al-Awni al-Harzi, a day after his brother, Ali, was killed in another drone strike in the Iraqi city of Mosul.

“His death will impact ISIL’s ability to integrate foreign terrorist fighters into the Syrian and Iraqi fight, as well as to move people and equipment across the border between Syria and Iraq,” Pentagon spokesman Capt. Jeff Davis said in a statement, using an alternative acronym for the jihadi group.

Harzi raised funds and recruited foreign fighters for the group, acquired weapons from Libya for Islamic State militants in Syria, and helped with providing homemade bombs for car bombings and suicide attacks in Iraq, Davis said.

The State Department had issued a $3 million reward for information leading to his death or capture.

It was not immediately clear why the Pentagon announced Harzi’s death more than two weeks after the strike, but typically war zone casualties can take weeks, if not months, to confirm.

Defense officials last week said Harzi’s brother, Ali, who was a suspect in the 2012 attacks on the American diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya, was killed in a U.S. strike on June 15.

Photo credit: ABD DOUMANY/Stringer

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