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A US drone strike in northwestern Syria has eliminated a senior leader in the al-Qaida-linked group Horas al-Din.

What’s the deal: According to CENTCOM, The US killed Abu Abdul Rahman Makki, a senior leader in the al-Qaida-linked militant group Horas al-Din, in a drone strike while he was riding a motorcycle in the Jabal al-Zawiya area of Idlib province, northwestern Syria.

More on Makki: Abu Abdul Rahman Makki was a senior leader in the al-Qaida-linked militant group Horas al-Din, which is composed of hardcore al-Qaida members who broke away from the insurgent group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham in Syria’s Idlib province. A Saudi national, Makki was previously a leader of the extremist group Jund al-Aqsa, now defunct, and had been imprisoned by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham. He was accused of overseeing terrorist operations in Syria that targeted both US and coalition forces. According to CENTCOM, Makki sought to carry out “attacks against US and Western interests.”

Despite this change in terminology, Peskov clarified that Russia’s legal stance on the conflict remains unchanged, continuing to classify its actions as a “special military operation.”