An airstrike has killed a top al-Qaeda commander and two other fighters in Syria

An airstrike has killed a top al-Qaeda commander and two other fighters in Syria, activists said Saturday.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Abdul Mohsen Abdallah Ibrahim al-Charekh, a Saudi better known as Sanafi al-Nasr, was killed Thursday in an airstrike near the northern Syrian town of Dana, along with another Saudi and a Moroccan member of al-Qaeda's local affiliate, known as the Nusra Front.

Russian warplanes have been carrying out airstrikes in Syria since Sept. 30 killing scores of terrorists and destroying their dens. A U.S.-led coalition has been allegedly targeting militants in Syria for more than a year but no major breakthrough has been achieved.

The Observatory, which relies on a network of activists inside Syria, said an Egyptian commander escaped the bombing. It said all four men had been dispatched to Syria by al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri.