US forces kill senior Al Qaeda leader in Syria

US Central Command (CENTCOM) on Saturday said it had carried out a precision airstrike in Syria, targeting and killing a senior leader in an Al Qaeda affiliate.

CENTCOM said it killed Muhammed Yusuf Ziya Talay, the senior military leader of Hurras Al Din (HaD), an Al Qaeda affiliate.

“As we have said in the past, we will continue to relentlessly pursue these terrorists in order to defend our homeland, and US, allied, and partner personnel in the region,” said Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla, CENTCOM commander.

Separately, STG Engineering, a Russian company that operates Syria’s Tartous commercial port, said that it was continuing to work as usual and that its contract had not been annulled as some media in the Middle East had suggested.

Three Syrian businessmen and media reports suggested in January that Syria’s new ruling administration had cancelled the contract that was signed under Assad, who fled to Moscow in December after a lightning rebel offensive.

Semi-official Syrian newspaper Al Watan at the time quoted the head of Tartous customs, Riad Joudy, as saying that the port investment contract had been annulled after the Russian firm had failed to fulfil the terms of the 2019 deal, which stipulated investment in infrastructure.

But Dmitry Trifonov, CEO of Moscow-based STG Engineering, told reporters on Friday his company was still managing the port and that nobody had told them their contract had been annulled, a process he said would be lengthy and bureaucratic if it happened.

“It is impossible to terminate the agreement unilaterally, because it has been ratified by both the president and the parliament, and no one has notified us,” said Trifonov.

“It has to go through the parliament and the president. Any statements have no legitimate basis because the cancellation of the presidential decree and ratification by the previous parliament is a whole procedure. What someone is saying now is just words.”

Media reports about the port contract had previously referred to the Russian operator as being STG Stroytransgaz, a major construction company.

When contacted about its role on Friday, Stroytransgaz said in a statement that it could not comment on the matter.

“JSC Stroytransgaz is a construction holding company and neither organisationally nor legally had, or has, anything to do with the company STG Engineering, with which the Tartous port management contract was concluded,” it said.

Agencies