A raid on a remote village in Afghanistan kills an aging al Qaeda leader wanted by the FBI. Messages to the group's cells around the world are seized. Two drone strikes on militants in northwest Syria swiftly follow.

Details of a little-publicized October raid targeting a senior al Qaeda militant, Husam Abd-al-Rauf, in the Afghan province of Ghazni have revealed how the terror group continues to thrive in Afghanistan under Taliban protection, and remains connected to its other franchises across the globe, according to accounts provided by Afghan intelligence officials to CNN.

The operation against al-Rauf netted al Qaeda messages between Afghanistan and Syria, one Afghan official said. Two rare US strikes against al Qaeda militants in Syria's Idlib province followed in the ten days afterward, although US officials played down any connection.