The United States carried out a pre-dawn airborne raid on 20 August in the town of Atmeh, Idlib province, killing a senior Islamic State figure viewed as the leading contender to head the group’s operations in Syria, a U.S. official told Reuters. No American personnel were injured. Identified by regional security services as Salah Noman—an Iraqi national also known as Ali al-Iraqi or Abu Hafs al-Qurashi—the militant was shot dead after reportedly trying to flee the building where he had been hiding. U.S. helicopters and drones provided air cover while local Syrian forces cordoned the neighbourhood; an Iraqi counter-terrorism team also took part, according to Syrian and Iraqi officials. Washington described the operation as part of ongoing efforts to prevent an ISIS resurgence. Idlib has served as a refuge for senior jihadists despite the group’s territorial defeat in 2019, and previous ISIS leaders Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and Abu Ibrahim al-Quraishi were killed in the same province in 2019 and 2022 respectively.