BEIRUT: The US military said on Saturday it had killed a senior member of Al Qaeda`s Syrian branch Hurras al-Din, which announced its dissolution last month, in an air strike in the country`s northwest.

It is the latest US strike this year against the group in Syria. Along with its Western and Arab allies, the United States has emphasised that Syria must not serve as a base for `terrorist` groups after the toppling of president Bashar al-Assad in December.

On Friday, US Central Command (CENTCOM) forces `conducted a precision air strike in northwest Syria, killing Wasim Tahsin Bayragdar, a senior leadership facilitator of the terrorist organisation Hurras al-Din,` the military said in a statement.

The northwest was the stronghold of interim president Ahmed alSharaa`s Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham groupbefore it led the rebel offensive that toppled Assad in December. The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said a drone strike on a car killed Bayragdar.

LastSunday,CENTCOM said it killed `a senior finance and logistics official` in Hurras al-Din.

That came after CENTCOM last month reported killing another senior Hurras al-Din operative, Muhammad Salah al-Zabir, in an air strike also in the northwest.

The US-based SITE Intelligence Group said Hurras al-Din was founded in Feb 2018. The group did not publicly confirm its allegiance to Al Qaeda until its dissolution announcement in January.

Hurras al-Din dissolved in line with orders from Sharaa, who has called on all armed group to disband. The United States designated Hurras al-Din as a `terrorist` organisation in 2019.-AFP