Russian airstrike kills HTS drone chief in Idlib
IDLIB, Syria (North Press) – A Russian airstrike on Wednesday killed the chief engineer of drone aviation for the Turkistan Islamic Party in Idlib Governorate, Northwest Syria.
A military leader from the al-Fatah al-Mubin Operations Room, led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), told North Press that the Russian airstrike led to the killing of engineer Abdul-Ilah al-Hashimi, a Palestinian national, and two of his assistants.
The Russian airstrike targeted a drone manufacturing facility in the town of Ain al-Beida, north of Latakia, on the Syrian coast.
The source added that al-Hashimi oversaw more than 30 specialists from the Turkistan Islamic Party and was responsible for drone operations targeting Syrian government forces.
The Turkistan Islamic Party includes jihadists that arrived from their homeland in China with their families in 2013 and settled in the coastal mountains and the western countryside of Idlib.
In April, unknown gunmen killed engineer Yasar Abu Dia’, a Palestinian national, who worked in engineering suicide drones for the Turkistan Islamic Party in Idlib Governorate.
On Tuesday, the Russian Reconciliation Center at the Khmeimim Air Base in Syria announced that the Russian Air Force targeted three training sites for “terrorists,” referring to HTS, as well as a warehouse and two workshops for manufacturing drones in Idlib.
Exclusive sources had previously told North Press that the HTS has a factory in the town of Ain al-Beida which was formerly a school and converted into a factory for manufacturing drones.