US air strike in Syria kills several al-Qaeda militants: Pentagon
The United States carried out an air strike against al-Qaeda militants in Syria in the wake of a previous strike that killed the spokesman of the group's Syrian branch, the Pentagon said on Wednesday.
"I can confirm that the US struck a vehicle killing several al-Qaeda militants," spokesman Matthew Allen said. "The results of this strike are still being assessed."
The latest strike was carried out in northwestern Syria, according to a Defence Department official who asked not to be identified.
The Washington Post reported that the raid took place late on Tuesday.
Neither the US nor al-Qaeda has released details on who was killed.
On Monday, the Pentagon said the military had conducted an air raid on an al-Nusra meeting in northwest Syria the previous day.
Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said the strike in northwestern Syria on Sunday resulted in the deaths of several enemy fighters.
"We assess that al-Qaeda senior leader Abu Firas al-Suri was in that meeting and we are working to confirm his death," Cook said.
Al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, the Nusra Front, confirmed on Wednesday that its spokesman Abu Firas al-Suri was killed in a US air strike.
Suri fought against Soviet forces in Afghanistan, where he met Osama bin Laden and the al-Qaeda leader's mentor, Abdullah Azzam, before returning to Syria in 2011.
Suri was meeting with other leading Nusra fighters when he was killed.
US strikes on al-Nusra in Syria have not been very frequent, with their raids overwhelmingly targeting the Islamic State (IS) group.
News of the strikes came as talks in Geneva aimed at ending the Syrian conflict were looming on 11 April.
The UN has said the upcoming round of talks will focus on plans for a political transition to lead Syria out of five years of brutal civil war.
Peace talks that fail to address the question of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's fate, however, are "doomed to failure," according to a spokesman for the main opposition grouping involved in the negotiations.
Riad Naasan Agha, of the Riyadh-based High Negotiations Committee, said that the talks must focus on the future of the Syrian leader.
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