...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...rebel faction was assassinated in the Dara’a Governorate, Friday, the group’s media wing reported.
According to Jaish al-Islam, the commander, Mazen Abu Wajdi, was traveling in his vehicle when a group of unknown assailants opened fire, abruptly ejecting him from the gene pool.
Abu Wajdi was the commander of Jaish al-Islam’s 11th Brigade and deployed to the Dara’a Governorate before he was assassinated
on Friday.
No group has grabbed credit for the liquidation.