An IS militant with direct links to those behind the terrorist attacks on Paris has been killed in an airstrike in Syria, the Pentagon claims.

Charaffe Al-Mouadan was killed on December 24th, according to U.S. military spokesperson Steve Warren, who said he was "was actively planning attacks against the West."

Warren also confirmed the killing of nine other IS leaders in airstrikes this month. "As long as ISIL external attack planners are operating, the U.S. Military will hunt them and kill them," he said on Twitter.

Al-Mouadan had links with Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a 28-year-old Belgian-born jihadist who helped to organise the attacks on the French capital that killed 130 people in November. Abaaoud was killed in a gunfight with police days after the attacks in the northern Parisian suburb of Saint-Denis.

According to VICE News, Al-Mouadan became the subject of investigation after a survivor of the massacre in the Bataclan Theatre heard the attackers referring to him by his nickname 'Souleymane.'

A friend of gunman Samy Amimour, both were charged with conspiracy to commit terrorism in 2012.

He is believed to have left France for Syria in 2013.