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US kills veteran al-Qaeda leader in Syria drone strike
 [MIDDLEEASTEYE.NET] A veteran member of al-Qaeda attached to the recently disaffiliated Syrian arm of the Death Eater group was killed on Monday by a US drone strike near Idlib.The Death Eater organization and the Pentagon confirmed Ahmed Salameh Mabrouk's death. Mabrouk, an Egyptian Death Eater, came to fame after appearing next to Abu Mohammed al-Golani, who leads Jabhat Fateh al-Sham ...formerly al-Nusra, the current false nose and mustache of al-Qaeda in the Levant... , in a video released in August announcing the group's plans to disaffiliate from al-Qaeda. Killed near Jisr al-Shughour in Idlib province, Mabrouk, also known as Abu Faraj, had longstanding connections to al-Qaeda's leadership. Despite the group's claims of a split from al-Qaeda, numerous analysts told Middle East Eye this year that al-Golani's video appearance with Abu Faraj, who is known to have longstanding relations with its leader, Ayman al-Zawahari, was significant. As a confidante of the al-Qaeda leader since the 1990s, Abu Faraj had operated on behalf of al-Qaeda in Egypt, Pakistain, Afghanistan, Yemen, Sudan, Russia and Azerbaijan, according to analysts at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, an American think-tank known for hawkish views on Iran. According to academic and longtime Syria commentator Charles Lister, one of Abu Faraj's laptops was once siezed by the CIA in Azerbaijan. The ceased laptops were described by CIA operatives at the time as the "Rosetta Stone of al-Qaeda." In April, Abu Faraj was the target of an earlier drone strike in which Egyptian national Rifai Taha was killed. The pair were attending a meeting with al-Qaeda figures in Syria. Rebranding itself as Fateh al-Sham, the former al-Qaeda affiliate has played a prominent role in the recent attempt by rebel groups to break the siege around Aleppo. The group eulogised Abu Faraj. "Ahmed Salama, known as Abu Faraj the Egyptian and a member of the shura (consultative council) of Fateh al-Sham Front, was martyred after a coalition air strike in the west of Idlib province," tFateh al-Sham said in a statement on the Telegram app. A Pentagon front man said on Monday that the United States is aware of the former al-Qaeda affiliate’s name change, but stressed that the group’s Lions of Islam are still viewed as Nusra by Washington. The group was recently exempted from an attempted ceasefire deal aimed at ending the siege of east Aleppo and facilitating the delivery of humanitarian aid  into the besieged rebel-controlled areas.Rebel groups were originally opposed to the ceasefire deal as it included plans for Russia and the US to collaborate on air strikes against Fateh al-Sham.
Posted by: Fred 2016-10-04 |
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