Maher al-Agal – ISIS leader in Syria killed in U.S. air strike
A significant blow to ISIS in Syria, following the death of one of its senior leaders in a U.S. airstrike, is expected to burden the terrorist group.
On Monday, the US Central Command announced the death of Maher al-Agal, the leader of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) in Syria, and his deputy after they were targeted by a US drone missile in the village of Ghaltan in the Jundress sub-district of Rif Afrin, northwest of Aleppo.
That strike, which revealed that ISIS leaders are under the American microscope, was said by US Central Command to confirm Washington’s commitment to the group’s enduring defeat and to the region, vowing to neutralize ISIS leaders to disrupt the group’s ability to “execute further global plots or attacks”.
What do we know about Maher al-Agal?
Maher al-Agal is one of four senior ISIS leaders and the movement’s leader in Syria; and is also responsible for efforts to expand ISIS networks beyond Iraq and Syria.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Maher al-Agal was carrying a fake ID with another name issued by the local council in Afrin, where he worked for the Ahrar al-Sharqiya faction.
Facilitated by Ahrar al-Sharqiya faction leaders, Maher al-Agal moved from the East Euphrates region in northern Syria in 2020 to the Afrin region, where he was a prominent ISIS leader at the time of the group’s takeover of Raqqa city, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
ISIS plot
The Observatory said the slain terrorist leader was the brother of Fayez al-Agal, who served as the emir of the Delegated Committee (state administrations) before he was killed in a near-identical scene in al-Bab in June 2020.
Rami Abdul-Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said in a press statement that the dead man was the “wali of al-Sham” in ISIS and is considered the group’s number one figure in the “Levant”.
Maher al-Agal is a planner of ISIS operations in Syria and is responsible for financing the group from abroad to support its operations inside Syrian territory, both inside areas controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces and under the control of government forces, he said.
Al-Agal’s death will disrupt the group’s funding, which has increased significantly from the Syrian-Iraqi border in areas controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to Manbij or regime-controlled areas in the Syrian Desert, he said.
His death is a definite blow to ISIS, he said, because it has become clear that the group’s leaders are not immune to US attacks inside Syria, which would make the group’s leaders fearful of future US attacks.
He’s not going to be the last
Targeting al-Agal and his deputy “will not be the last; the information we have indicates that there are many ISIS leaders in the Afrin region”.
The strike reaffirms US Central Command’s steadfast commitment to the region and the enduring defeat of ISIS, said Col. Joe Buchino, US Central Command spokesman.
“ISIS continues to be a threat to the United States and its partners in the region,” he said, adding that US Central Command maintains a sufficient and sustained presence in the region and will continue to counter threats to regional security.
Prior operations
The killing of al-Agal comes just one day before US President Joe Biden is scheduled to begin a visit to Israel and Saudi Arabia.
In June, US forces captured Hani Ahmed al-Kurdi, a senior ISIS leader in Syria.
In February, ISIS leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi and his family were killed during a raid by US special forces in northern Syria.
Al-Qurashi had led the group since the death of the terrorist organization’s founder, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who was killed by an improvised explosive device in a US raid in 2019.
