(VOVworld) - An air strike has killed a top al-Qaeda commander and two other fighters in Syria, activists said Saturday, but it was not immediately clear whether it was carried out by the US-led coalition or Russian warplanes.

Smoke rises after shelling by the Syrian army in Jobar, Damascus, Syria (Photo: AP)

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Abdul Mohsen Abdallah Ibrahim al-Charekh, a Saudi, was killed Thursday in an airstrike near the northern Syrian town of Dana, along with another Saudi and a Moroccan member of al-Qaeda’s local affiliate, known as the Nusra Front. Al-Charekh, the alleged leader of al-Qaeda’s operations in Syria, was one of six men that the U.N. Security Council imposed sanctions on last year. He was 49th on a list of 85 most-wanted militants by Saudi Arabia who are outside the kingdom.