WASHINGTON, Oct. 6 (Xinhua) -- U.S. forces have killed three senior leaders of the Islamic State (IS) extremist group in twin attacks overnight on Thursday, the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said.
CENTCOM said in a pair of statements that the senior IS leaders responsible for acquiring weapons and recruiting fighters for the group were killed in two separate airstrikes U.S. forces conducted in Syria.
Of them, the helicopter raid that killed Rakkan Wahid al-Shammri, an official known to facilitate the smuggling of weapons and fighters to support IS operations, was launched near the northern Syrian village of Qamishli, wounding one of the target's associates and resulting in two other associates being detained by U.S. forces, one of the statements said.
Several hours later, U.S. forces carried out an airstrike in the northern part of Syria, in which both Abu-Hashum al-Umawi, a deputy IS leader in Syria, and a senior official associated with him, were killed, read another statement.
Neither U.S. soldiers nor local civilians were killed or injured during both operations, CENTCOM said. ■