Syria airstrike killed Al Qaeda fighters but didn't hit mosque, Pentagon says
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A U.S. airstrike in Syria killed "dozens" of Al Qaeda fighters -- and may have eliminated some of the terror network's "high value" leaders -- but did not directly strike a mosque, a Pentagon spokesman told reporters Friday.
"This [strike] hit its intended target," Capt. Jeff Davis said. He showed a photo of the bombed-out building to Pentagon reporters and added that the Pentagon was still assessing the damage from Thursday's strike.
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Davis said the U.S. strike was planned around a "meeting" around Al Qaeda leaders in the terror-linked building. "It was a meeting of Al Qaeda leadership that we had been tracking for some time."
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He also admitted there "could be damage" to the side of the mosque next door. The strike unfolded in Al-Jinah, Syria, located 17 miles southwest of Aleppo, around 7 p.m. local time.
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In the photo shown to reporters, the mosque appeared intact.
It was unclear if the mosque had any connection to the targeted building aside from being next-door, according to the Pentagon. The strike was conducted using drones and jet aircraft, Davis said.
The airstrike came a month after a CIA drone strike killed Al Qaeda's #2, Abu al-Khayr al-Masri, in Syria.
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Also, during the final hours of the Obama presidency, a U.S. Air Force B-52 bomber killed more than 100 Al Qaeda fighters in Syria. They were at a camp "where more than 100 fighters were being trained in terror tactics," the U.S. military's Central Command reported.