US airstrikes have killed three key ISIL leaders in Syria, according to the US defence secretary.<br /><br /> Ash Carter announced the news during an address to US airmen at a military base in Italy.<br /><br /> “I can confirm today we took out three of ISIL’s key leaders in the last couple of weeks by one strike.”<br /><br /> “These were guys linked to plots right here in Europe..for example, the Paris attacks,” Carter said, referring to the attacks in November 2015 in which 130 people died.<br /><br /> <br /><br /><br /> U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter says the U.S. has killed three key leaders of the Islamic State group in Syria. https://t.co/69GcOSFqrw— The Associated Press (@AP) December 13, 2016<br /> <br /><br /> <br /><br /><br /><br /> The details<br /><br /> <br /><br /><br /><br /> Carter’s spokesperson, Peter Cook, said later that the three were killed in an airstrike on December the 4th in Raqqa.<br /><br /> The two involved in the Paris attacks, Salah Gourmat and Sammy Djedou, were close associates of ISIL external operations leader Abu Mohammed al-Adnani, who was killed in August.<br /><br /> The third person, Walid Hamman, had been convicted in absentia in Belgium for a disrupted attack planned for 2015.<br /><br /> Coalition airstrikes in Iraq and Syria have been taking out an increasing number of ISIL leaders in recent months.<br /><br /> Experts say this has been helped by improved intelligence gathering on the ground and from information collected in areas where ISIL has been driven out.<br />
