United States Central Command reported on Sunday that a U.S. military drone strike killed an ISIS leader in Syria on Friday.

Three US MQ-9 Reaper drones that the Associated Press reported were harassed by Russian aircraft hours before the strike, completed the strike that killed Usamah al-Muhajir, a top ISIS leader, as he was riding a motorcycle in Aleppo around 9:30 a.m.

"We have made it clear that we remain committed to the defeat of ISIS throughout the region,” Gen. Michael Kurilla, a Central Command commander, said.

“There are no indications that any civilians were killed in this strike and the coalition is assessing reports of a civilian injury,” the agency added.

ISIS still a threat

No details about how al-Muhajir was identified and confirmed dead were given.

ISIS remains a threat in the region even as it has lost a significant part of its power there over the last several years, and the current drone strike is one of several that have been carried out since 2019.

One reason for continued drone strikes is the suspicion that surviving ISIS members are thought to be planning future attacks on U.S. and other targets.

Russian jets apparently tried to interfere with an earlier attempt to complete the drone strike by harassing the U.S. drones, and had done so on a daily basis since Wednesday.

Provocative actions

Russian planes “flew 18 unprofessional close passes that caused the MQ-9s to react to avoid unsafe situations," Lt. Gen. Alex Grynkewich, head of U.S. Air Forces Central Command said.

On Thursday, the Russian planes harassed both U.S. and French planes that were in the area, deploying flares directly into the planes and causing them to take evasive actions.

The actions could have easily provoked a counterattack, particularly on Friday when the drones were armed and hunting th eir target.

But maybe that's what Russia wanted. President Vladimir Putin has threatened action against the U.S. for its massive aid to Ukraine in that conflict, and a U.S. drone strike against its aircraft would give it a clear reason to move against the U.S.

Aggressions and escalations

There have been increasingly aggressive incidents between U.S. planes and Russian planes, and also between U.S. assets and Chinese ships in the South China Sea in recent months.

It's clear that adversarial nations do not have any fear of President Joe Biden or what he might do in response to these aggressions and escalations because he has already shown that he won't do anything to these adversaries, who might have paid him off years ago for just this very type of scenario.