U.S. Says Air Strike Kills More Than 100 Al-Qaeda Fighters in Syria

U.S. military officials say a B-52 bomber and an undisclosed number of U.S. drones took part in the raid in Syria shortly after sundown on January 19 (file photo).

U.S. officials say the country's air force has carried out trikes on a militant camp in Syria, killing more than 100 Al-Qaeda fighters, marking the final counterterrorism attack carried out under U.S. President Barack Obama.

Military officials say a B-52 bomber and an undisclosed number of U.S. drones took part in the raid shortly after sundown on January 19 west of Aleppo near the border with Turkey.

They described the militants killed in the air strikes as "core" Al-Qaeda members.

Most are thought to have traveled to Syria in 2016 to establish a foothold there, and were not thought to have been members of the group formerly known as the Al-Nusra Front -- an Al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria at least until 2016, when the group claims that it cut all of its ties with any "external entity."

On January 19, the U.S. military said it killed an Al-Qaeda leader in an air strike in the same area of Idlib Province on January 17.

He was named as Mohammad Habib Boussadoun al-Tunisi, a Tunisian and an "external operations" planner for Al-Qaeda.

Based on reporting by Reuters and AP