BEIRUT (AP) — The U.S.-led coalition says it targeted a senior member of the Islamic State group who was involved in the 2014 killing of American aid worker Peter Kassig.
Col. Sean Ryan, a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition fighting IS, told The Associated Press on Monday that coalition forces conducted precision strikes against Abu al-Umarayn and several other IS members.
He says Sunday's strike occurred in a desert area in southeastern Syria.
Ryan says Abu al-Umarayn had given indications of "posing an imminent threat" to coalition forces and that he was involved in Kassig's beheading.
He also says al-Umarayn was linked to and directly involved in the killings of several other prisoners of IS.
Over the past years, the U.S.-led coalition has killed top IS officials in Syria and Iraq.
