Zahran Alloush, head of the powerful Jaish Al Islam Syrian rebel group, was killed on Friday east of Damascus, a monitoring group and Syria's opposition said.His death "stands as one of the most significant opposition losses" of Syria's nearly five-year uprising, analyst Charles Lister said on Twitter.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said Alloush and five other commanders were killed "in an air strike that targeted one of their meetings in Eastern Ghouta."
| Whose aircraft? Rooshun? American? Ruritanian? |
Syria's state television channel also reported the death by air strike, but did not say who had carried out the raid.
Jaish Al Islam is the most prominent rebel faction in the Eastern Ghouta region, an opposition bastion east of the capital, and was recently represented at landmark opposition talks in Saudi Arabia. The Syrian government regularly refers to the group as "terrorists".
| The group returns the description... |
Jaish Al Islam was known to have extremist views and to have supported the establishment of Daesh before recently moving towards a more moderate position.
Alloush spent at least two years in Syrian prisons before being released in a general amnesty in June 2011.
| An Nahar adds Syria sez they dunnit: |
...Liwa al-Islam (Brigade of Islam) was established by Zahran Alloush, the son of Saudi-based religious scholar Abdullah Mohammed Alloush, after Syrian authorities released him from prison in mid-2011 where he had been serving time for his Salafist activism. The group claimed responsibility for carrying out the July 2012 Damascus bombing that killed Defense Minister Dawoud Rajiha, Deputy Defense Minister Asef Shawkat, and Assistant Vice President Hassan Turkmani. It was a driving force behind actions in the Damascus region. It cooperated and conducted joint operations with al-Nusra. In Sptember 2013 Saudi Arabia engineered Liwa al-Islam's merger with fifty other more or less Salafist groups as a counterweight to al-Nusra, which the Learned Elders of Islam considered was growing too powereful...confirmed Alloush's death to AFP, saying three planes targeted a "secret meeting" of commanders.
In a statement carried by state television
... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
, Syria's army command said it had conducted the "special operation" that killed Alloush as part of its "national mission."
A Syrian security source told AFP "dozens" of rebel fighters were killed in the raids, carried out by Syria's air force with newly-provided Russian missiles. The jets launched two rounds of strikes on the meeting with four missiles each, the source said. At least 12 Jaish al-Islam members and seven from the Islamist Ahrar al-Sham
...a Syria jihadi group made up of Islamists and salafists, not that there's that much difference, formed into a brigade. They make up the main element of the Islamic Front but they don't profess adoration of al-Qaeda and they've been fighting (mainly for survival) against the Islamic State. Their leadership was wiped out at a single blow by a suicide kaboom at a crowded basement meeting in September, 2014...
group were killed.
Backed by Riyadh, Jaish al-Islam recently took part in landmark opposition talks in Soddy Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face...
It was known to have bully boy views and to have supported the establishment of an Islamic state before recently moving towards a more moderate position.