A prominent leader of the Islamic State , responsible for planning attacks in Europe , was killed in a strike launched by US forces in northwestern Syria, according to the Central Command of the US Army, Centcom, on Tuesday.

Since the extremist organization lost its last stronghold in eastern Syria in 2019, Washington, which leads the international coalition against it in Syria and neighboring Iraq, has pursued its leaders and their movements through targeting and landing operations to prevent it from regaining its activity.

The commander of the Central Command, Michael Korella, said in a statement that the US forces "launched a unilateral strike in northwestern Syria, which resulted in the death of Khaled Iyad Ahmed al-Jubouri, a prominent leader" in the organization on Monday.

He explained that Al-Jubouri was "responsible for planning attacks for the Islamic State organization in Europe and developing the leadership of the network" of the organization.

The American strike did not result in the death or injury of civilians, according to Centcom.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an American march targeted al-Jabouri, an Iraqi, while he was talking on the phone near his house in the northern countryside of Idlib.

Al-Jubouri was killed, according to the Observatory, ten days after he arrived in the area and identified himself as a Syrian from Deir Ezzor governorate (east).

Kurella said al-Jubouri's death would "temporarily disrupt the organization's ability to plan external attacks."

Despite the strikes that repeatedly target its leaders and the movements of its members in Syria and Iraq, Kurella considered that the organization "is still able to lead operations in the region, with a desire to strike areas outside the Middle East."

He stressed that the organization "still represents a threat to the region and beyond."

Since the summer of 2014, the organization has controlled large areas in Syria and neighboring Iraq, on which it declared the "Islamic caliphate" before it was gradually expelled from it.

At the height of his influence, specifically between 2015 and 2016, he adopted bloody attacks in several European cities, most notably in Paris, Nice, Brussels, Barcelona and Berlin, which resulted in the deaths of hundreds of civilians.

In March 2019, the Syrian Democratic Forces, whose backbone is the Kurds, announced the defeat of the organization after controlling its last stronghold in the town of Al-Baghouz (east) with the support of the international coalition led by Washington.

Since then, the US forces and the international coalition have pursued the leaders of the organization. From time to time, raids, raids, or airdrops are launched against members suspected of belonging to the organization in Syria, especially in Idlib governorate, which Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (formerly al-Nusra) and other less influential factions control about half of its area.

The US forces succeeded in liquidating or arresting leaders in several operations, the most prominent of which was the killing of the leaders of the Islamic State, Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi in October 2019, and then Abu Ibrahim Al-Qurashi in February 2022 in Idlib Governorate.

At the end of November, the extremist organization announced the killing of its leader, Abi al-Hassan al-Hashimi al-Qurashi, in battles whose date was not specified, and it was later revealed that they took place in the southern province of Daraa, in which local fighters participated with the support of the Syrian regime forces.

The US forces leading the coalition against the organization are deployed in areas controlled by Kurdish fighters in northern and northeastern Syria, and in bases in Deir ez-Zor (east) and Raqqa (north).

Despite the strikes targeting its leaders, movements, and locations, the organization is still able to launch attacks and carry out sporadic attacks, especially in eastern and northeastern Syria, and in the vast Syrian desert.

Washington's announcement came as two civilians were killed last night as a result of an Israeli missile strike targeting Damascus and the south of the country, according to the Syrian official news agency "SANA", in an attack that is the fourth of its kind in less than a week.

Since 2011, Syria has been witnessing a bloody conflict with many sides, which, since its outbreak, has caused the death of more than half a million people, massive destruction of infrastructure, and the displacement of more than half of the population inside and outside the country.