Senior Al-Qaeda Leader, Two Associates Killed in Syria Airstrikes - Reports

A senior al-Qaeda terrorist group figure was killed alongside two associates in airstrikes over northern Syria, local media reported Saturday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The FNA report said Syrian armed forces and Hezbollah fighters launched large-scale cleanup operations in Aleppo with backing from the Russian Aerospace Forces.

The operation allowed government forces to regain control of a number of towns and villages across the province.

"Saudi-born Sanafi al-Nasr, senior al-Qaeda leader and strategist, was killed in an airstrike in Aleppo province in Syria," sources were cited as saying by Iran’s FNA outlet.

Among the victims were another Saudi national and a Moroccan national.

A Free Syrian Army fighter walks near military vehicles during what they said was preparations for an operation to strike at forces loyal to Syria's president Bashar Al-Assad in order to break a siege on the city of Beit Gin located in western countryside of Damascus in Deraa, Syria September 30, 2015

© REUTERS / Alaa Al-Faqir

The outlet said the Nusra Front, the militant group affiliated with al-Qaeda in Syria, released photographs of a car struck by an airstrike west of Aleppo and photographs of bodies not independently verified.

Nasr was said to have led the terrorist group’s so-called victory committee responsible for developing and implementing strategy and policies.

Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Gen.-Maj. Igor Konashenkov said earlier Russia's Su-25 aircraft destroyed two militants' tanks and five infantry fighting vehicles in Aleppo.