US officials retract claim that senior Al-Qaeda figure was killed in Syria

ANKARA (AA): US military officials have retracted their initial claim that a recent drone strike in Syria killed a “senior al-Qaeda figure.”

The officials, speaking anonymously, stated that the Pentagon is no longer confident that the strike successfully killed a high-ranking al-Qaeda figure.

“We are no longer confident we killed a senior AQ official,” the Washington Post cited one US military official as saying.

However, another official told the US media that they believe that the person killed may still have had ties to al-Qaeda.

This comes after the family of the deceased insisted that he had no ties with terrorists.

According to the Washington Post the victim, Lotfi Hassan Misto, 56, was identified by his family as the individual targeted in the Predator drone strike on May 3.

Interviews with Misto’s brother, son, and six others who knew him revealed that he was a former bricklayer who lived a quiet life in a town in northwest Syria. Those close to him described him as a kind and hard-working man, whose entire existence was characterized by poverty.

The US military officials had claimed that the strike had successfully targeted an “influential al-Qaeda figure.” No evidence or suspect was named.

However, these assertions were called into question, as the family vehemently denied his involvement with terrorist groups and insisted that Misto was innocently engaged in his daily routine at the time of the attack.