( CNN ) As many as 13 senior leaders of al-Nusra Front , including the terror group 's military commander , were killed in two Syrian airstrikes Thursday , a Middle Eastern security source who was briefed by Syrian intelligence told CNN . Abu Hammam al Shami was among those killed in the strikes against al-Nusra , al Qaeda 's largest affiliate in Syria , the source said . Syria 's state news agency SANA also reported al Shami 's death . The special operation that took place in Hobait , in Idlib province , was part of a wider effort by Syrian forces to destroy areas believed to be gathering points for al-Nusra militants around the province , according to SANA . According to a 2014 al-Nusra video , al Shami joined the group after years of training in Afghanistan and Iraq . Also killed in the northwestern province of Idlib was a senior Saudi operative in the group , the source said . There were initial indications that al-Nusra leader Abu Mohammed al Jolani was wounded in one of the strikes , the source said Thursday . But on Friday , the source told CNN the latest assessment of Syrian intelligence was that al Jolani was not injured . The strikes took place in the towns of Salqin and Hobait , both near the city of Saraqeb in Idlib . One strike targeted a meeting of senior al-Nusra Front leaders ; the other was on a home being used as a base , the source said . A spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition that is hitting ISIS targets in Syria said its planes were n't involved . `` Within the last 24 hours , we have not conducted any airstrikes within 200 miles of the province of Idlib , '' the spokesman said earlier Thursday . Al Shami was featured in a March 2014 video released by al-Nusra Front , in which he discussed his failed attempt to mediate between his militants and ISIS after rising tensions between the groups . The video included a biography by the group of al Shami , which was translated by the Long War Journal . It said that in the late 1990s , al Shami traveled to Afghanistan , where he was trained in a camp run by Abu Musab al Suri , a veteran Syrian jihadi strategist . Al Shami then trained in al Qaeda camps , where he met one of the 9/11 hijackers and personally swore allegiance to Osama bin Laden . By the time of the 9/11 attacks , al Shami had started to train recruits in Afghanistan and was named as the head of the Syrian jihadist contingent within al Qaeda . After the fall of the Taliban , he fled Afghanistan with senior Egyptian al Qaeda operative Sayf al Adel , the group said in the video . Al Shami began operating in Iraq , where he began working with al Qaeda in Iraq founder Abu Musab al-Zarqawi , conducting training for the group during the Iraqi insurgency , the al-Nusra video stated . In 2005 , al Shami returned to Afghanistan for a short period , at the request of al Qaeda 's leadership . When he got to the Afghanistan-Pakistan region , one of bin Laden 's top deputies , Attiyah Abd al Rahman , tasked al Shami with leading al Qaeda efforts in Syria , but he was arrested as he traveled through Lebanon , according to the video , and was detained for five years . After being released , he found his way to Syria , where he joined al-Nusra , the group said . CNN 's Jamie Crawford contributed to this report .
One of the 13 senior leaders killed was the al Qaeda affiliate 's military commander , the source says . The U.S. has been tracking him for some time and is now trying to get his location from a drone strike in Yemen that targeted an AQAP leader last month.