It is the latest US strike this year against the group in Syria. Along with its Western and Arab allies, the United States has emphasised that Syria must not serve as a base for "terrorist" groups after the toppling of president Bashar al-Assad in December.

On Friday, US Central Command (CENTCOM) forces "conducted a precision air strike in northwest Syria, killing Wasim Tahsin Bayraqdar, a senior leadership facilitator of the terrorist organisation Hurras al-Din," the military said in a statement.

The northwest was the stronghold of interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa's Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group before it led the rebel offensive that toppled Assad in December.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said a drone strike on a car killed Bayraqdar.

Last Sunday, CENTCOM said it killed "a senior finance and logistics official" in Hurras al-Din.

That came after CENTCOM last month reported killing another senior Hurras al-Din operative, Muhammad Salah al-Zabir, in an air strike also in the northwest.

The US-based SITE Intelligence Group said Hurras al-Din was founded in February 2018.

The group did not publicly confirm its allegiance to Al-Qaeda until its dissolution announcement in January.

Hurras al-Din dissolved in line with orders from Sharaa, who has called on all armed group to disband.

The United States designated Hurras al-Din as a "terrorist" organisation in 2019.