US Central Command (Centcom) said on Thursday that a US airstrike killed two senior officials of the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group in Syria.

“US forces carried out a successful airstrike in northern Syria, killing Syria’s Wali deputy Abu Hashum al-Umawi and another senior ISIS official associated with him,” the statement said.

“This attack will weaken ISIL’s ability to destabilize the region and attack our forces and partners,” Centcom chief General Michael Kurilla said. The U.S. Army stated that “no civilians were killed or injured during this operation.”

The US command said earlier on Thursday that US forces had killed another ISIS officer during a helicopter operation in northeast Syria.

The US remains focused on the leaders of the jihadist group, which, despite being defeated in Iraq in 2017 and Syria in 2019, continues to carry out attacks through sleeper cells in these two countries.