The US carried out a strike on northwest Syria on Wednesday targeting an unnamed al Qaida leader, the Central Command said in a written statement.

“At 11:42am local time on May 3rd, US Central Command forces conducted a unilateral strike in Northwest Syria targeting a senior al Qaida leader,” it said, without giving a name or specifying whether the leader had been killed.

The strike comes just days after Turkey announced that its forces had killed the Islamic State group’s head in the same zone in northwest Syria, where Turkish-backed rebels hold sway.

Residents of the area, which mostly consists of hilly plains dotted with shrubbery and boulders, told Reuters that they heard three loud blasts that sounded like air strikes.

The White Helmets, a rescue force in opposition-held parts of Syria, said an unidentified drone had carried out a strike in the northwestern province of Idlib and killed a sheep herder.

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the former Syrian offshoot of al Qaida, holds swathes of territory in northwest Syria and its civilian branch also controls civil administrations in the area. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, said the strike hit a chicken farm near the town of Harem. It said the dead man has not been identified yet.

The US Central Command said that shortly before noon, US forces conducted “a unilateral strike” in northwestern Syria, targeting a senior al-Qaida leader.

It added that more information would be provided “as operational details become available.”

Reuters, AP/PTI