A joint U.S.–led coalition operation in the early hours of 20 August killed Salah Numan, an Iraqi national viewed by U.S. officials as a leading contender to head Islamic State’s Syrian branch. The helicopter-borne raid targeted a residential building in Atmeh, a town in Syria’s north-western Idlib province close to the Turkish border. U.S. forces conducted the assault alongside Iraq’s Counter-Terrorism Service and, according to Syrian security sources, local intelligence units that had tracked Numan’s movements. Coalition aircraft surrounded the area before troops stormed the building; Numan was shot dead while attempting to flee. Several family members were detained. The Pentagon reported no injuries among American personnel. Numan had been accused of reviving ISIS sleeper cells across Syria and maintaining cross-border links with the group’s Iraqi networks. His death follows a series of coalition strikes that have removed successive ISIS leaders since the group lost its territorial strongholds in 2019, underscoring continuing multilateral efforts to prevent the jihadist organisation from rebuilding its command structure.