U.S. Raids Kill Top Qaida Operative in Syria

U.S. strikes have killed a senior operative from Al-Qaida's Syrian branch in the war-torn country's northern province of Aleppo, activists said on Wednesday.

Abu Yusef al-Turki, a 47-year-old Turkish fighter, was among 50 militants killed in strikes on Tuesday against what the United States called an Al-Qaida cell that had been planning attacks on Western interests.

"Al-Nusra Front members are very sad today because of this death," Ibrahim al-Idlibi, an activist in Idlib province in northwestern Syria, told AFP.

Turki, a sniper, had arrived in Syria 18 months ago and fought regime troops in the central province of Hama and the coastal region of Latakia, as well as Idlib.

He had also trained Nusra's elite snipers, he added.

Online, Nusra members and supporters expressed their condolences and anger about Turki's death, using the hashtag "the martyr Abu Yusef al-Turki".

"He was the sixth best sniper in the world, and he trained 400 other snipers," a supporter named Abu Mussab al-Assir tweeted.

"He never killed civilians, his war was against the criminal regime," wrote another, Abu Anas al-Hamadani.

"Why did America and their henchmen murder him?" he asked.

Turki's death was even reported in Syria's Al-Watan newspaper, close to the regime, which described him as "the most famous sniper in the world".

The strikes on Tuesday hit an area on the border between Aleppo and Idlib provinces.

U.S. Central Command, which oversees American forces in the Middle East, said the military action had been taken "to disrupt the imminent attack plotting against the United States and Western interests".