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US forces killed 11 Al Qaeda operatives in two air strikes in Syria: Pentagon

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WASHINGTON/UN/BEIRUT: US forces killed 11 Al Qaeda operatives in two air strikes near Idlib, Syria, this month, including a member with links to the late Osama bin Laden and other top leaders of the group, the Pentagon has said.


It said a February 4 strike killed Abu Hani al Masri, who it said oversaw the creation and operation of many Al Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan in the 1980s and 1990s, where he “recruited, indoctrinated, trained and equipped thousands of terrorists.”


Al Masri had ties to Bin Laden and Al Qaeda’s current leader, Ayman al Zawahri, the Pentagon said in a statement.


Ten Al Qaeda members were killed in an air strike on a building used as a meeting place on February 3, it said.


In continuation of its diplomatic efforts, UN will send invitations to Syria peace talks. UN envoy Staffan de Mistura will send invitations to Syria peace talks in the coming days, a spokesman said on Wednesday —seemingly allowing the opposition to bypass a deadline to agree on its negotiators.


De Mistura had warned the opposition that he would pick their delegates to the talks opening in Geneva on February 20 if they could not decide by Wednesday on who would represent them.


The envoy however appears to have backtracked on the ultimatum.


“The invitations will go out in the coming days,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters.


“We all know that these processes are rather complex, demand a lot of discussion and consultation with various people.”


“So Mr De Mistura and his team are continuing on that track.”


De Mistura’s threat to appoint the negotiating team drew a sharp response from the opposition, which said it was not the UN envoy’s “business” to pick delegates to peace talks.


The Geneva talks are aimed at ending the nearly six-year war in Syria that has killed more than 310,000 people.


Meanwhile, rebel fire on an aid distribution centre in Syria’s Aleppo city has killed three people, including a Red Crescent volunteer and a child, a monitor said on Thursday.


The Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) and the International Committee of the Red Cross confirmed the volunteer’s death in Wednesday’s incident.


“One SARC staff member was killed. Seven SARC volunteers and staff were injured, three of them severely,” a statement said. “Two beneficiaries who had come to the centre to receive humanitarian aid also died, and several others were injured.”


The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor identified those two killed as a woman and a child.


The rocket fire hit a SARC distribution centre in the Hamdaniyah neighbourhood of the city, which was fully recaptured by government forces in December after a months-long siege and heavy fighting.


The Observatory also reported five children were killed on Wednesday when unexploded ordnance detonated in the Bustan al Qasr neighbourhood, a rebel-held district recaptured by government forces in December.


— Agencies


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