US ground forces kill ‘Islamic State’ militant linked to Turkey nightclub attack

An IS fighter has been killed in a ground operation in Syria, the US military announced. Close to the IS leadership, Abdurakhmon Uzbeki was linked to an attack on a Turkish nightclub that killed 39 people, DW reported.

Colonel John Thomas, a spokesman for the US military Central Command announced on Friday that Abdurakhmon Uzbeki, who was believed to be from Uzbekistan, was killed during a ground assault near Mayadin, Syria, on April 6. The town on the Euphrates river near Deir Ezzor in eastern Syria, is in an area that is regularly targeted by coalition air strikes.

“It was a ground operation. I think that’s all we’re willing to say about that,” Thomas said. The US military spokesman said that Uzbeki did not die in an airstrike. “We have clearly linked him with the New Year’s Eve Istanbul bombing,” Thomas added.

Thomas described the ground raid in Syria targeting Uzbeki “as an operation in order to eliminate him.”

“We have a campaign against leaders of ISIS and a campaign against the leaders of al-Qaeda,” said Thomas. “You can kind of look through the history of the strikes and I think we have a pretty good record of finding these folks and killing them.”