Was the US secretive 'ninja' missile used again in Syria Saturday?

Social media posts sought to link the strike to a series of other US attacks on al-Qaeda affiliates in northern Syria in which US drones have used such a weapon.

By SETH J. FRANTZMAN
A motorbike burns after an airstrike in this screen grab taken from a social media video said to be taken in Idlib, Syria on July 16, 2019 (photo credit: WHITE HELMETS/SOCIAL MEDIA VIA REUTERS)
A motorbike burns after an airstrike in this screen grab taken from a social media video said to be taken in Idlib, Syria on July 16, 2019
(photo credit: WHITE HELMETS/SOCIAL MEDIA VIA REUTERS)
A man riding a motorcycle was hit by an alleged drone strike near the Syrian town of Al-Bab in the early morning hours of Saturday. His mangled body was seen on video near the side of a dusty road and the remains of his motorcycle had crashed on the other side. A second man may have been killed in the same airstrike. The attack was reported by Syrian activists as a drone strike.
The man’s identification card was found among his belongings and shown to the cameras. His name was allegedly Ahmed al-Darvis, although reports indicated this may have been a cover name or false identity. He was linked to Raqqa, the former ISIS capital, and was living in Akhtarin, a town north of Aleppo.
Social media posts sought to link the strike to a series of other US attacks on al-Qaeda affiliates in northern Syria in which US drones have used a secretive “ninja” weapon. This is the R9X, a version of the Hellfire missile that has its warhead removed and replaced with six swords. It slams into a car or person using the swords to kill but is incredibly accurate, rarely harming those near the target. The impact is not supposed to cause an explosion and thus cuts down on collateral damage.

New videos of the “ninja” weapon have been released showing three recovered versions of it. The weapons that were recovered have letters and numbers on them and say AGM R9X. This isn’t exactly clandestine then, since leaving the name on the missile doesn’t make it plausible to deny its existence. Reports last year already provided evidence about the weapon’s existence to US media, a kind of warning to the al-Qaeda and ISIS affiliates that this flying group of steak knives backed by 100 lbs of Hellfire missile was coming for them.

The gruesome remains of the target in Al-Bab show what this weapon can allegedly do. The other remains from a car earlier this month in Idlib also show that the occupant was eviscerated. The car was covered in blood on the inside. The killing of the motorcyclist would be at least the fourth incident using this weapon. However, there are questions about whether this was the same munition used or something else happened to the man on the motorcycle. Since the US doesn’t comment on these strikes it might be impossible to know.

What the US does comment on is other strikes it carries out against ISIS in Iraq. Washington recently carried out a strike on an ISIS hideout in Iraq's Nineveh plains. US-led coalition spokesman Myles Caggins tweeted that ISIS “remnants can’t hide. Daesh [ISIS] leaders are getting killed or captured leaving their lowly terrorist followers dazed & disillusioned," adding that the June 19 airstrike "blasted a ISIS hideout" there.



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