Reports surfaced on 26 February 2017 that al-Masri had been killed in a U.S. airstrike on his car in Al-Mastumah in the Syrian province of Idlib.[11] There was no immediate official confirmation from either the United States or al-Qaeda.[2][12] Guardian journalists Tom McCarthy and Martin Chulov later reported that jihadist leaders confirmed that al-Masri was killed in the drone strike.[13] The airstrike also killed another Tahrir al-Sham militant traveling in the car.[2][1] A US intelligence official and al-Qaeda later confirmed that al-Masri had been killed in the strike.[14][15][16]