A fully armed MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicle taxis down the runway at an air base in Afghanistan on its way to another wartime mission. (U.S. Air Force photo/Staff Sgt. Brian Ferguson).
The target of the December 3 drone strike on the northwestern Syrian region of Greater Idlib has been identified as a young Syrian man named Musab Khalid Kin’an.
Musab was killed when a motorcycle he was riding on Almastumah-Arihah road in the southern Idlib countryside was targeted by a suspected US combat drone. A family of five who were passing in their SUV near Musab’s motorcycle at the time of the strike were all wounded.
Syrian opposition activists said that Musab, originally from the town of Ehsim in the southern countryside of Idlib, was a civilian. He was reportedly studding the Turkish language at a local institute.
However, some pro-government sources alleged that the student was a secret member of al-Qaeda-affiliated Horas al-Din.
#سوريا #ادلب مقتل مصعب خالد كنعان، ينتمي لتنظيم حراس الدين، جراء إستهدافه بصاروخ موجه من طائرة استطلاع تابعة للتحالف الدولي على طريق ادلب/المسطومة. pic.twitter.com/b8EDMIXwe7
— Syria Post سوريا بوست (@syriapostnew1) December 3, 2021
A heavily armed US General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper combat drone was spotted flying over Greater Idlib around ten tens before the strike.
More information on the drone strike will likely surface in the upcoming few days. Recently, the US took responsibility for a similar drone strike that targeted Greater Idlib in September and identified the target as Horas al-Din senior leader Salim Abu-Ahmad.
