...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..., including commanders, have been killed in barrel bombs attack on southern neighborhoods of Damascus, local news hound said Tuesday.
The General commander of Jaish al-Islam, Abu al-Brara’, was maimed in the attack on Yalda, last rebels stronghold in the capital.
Local activists said the regime warplanes have carried out more than 500 raids in a week of major ground and aerial offensive to end rebels and hardline groups presence south of Damascus.
Bashir al-Assad, backed by Iran and Russia, is seeking to crush the last few besieged rebel enclaves, building on the defeat of rebels in the eastern Ghouta region, which was the rebels' last major stronghold near the capital.
The regime's state television
... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
claims they're aiming to destroy dug out trenches and tunnels in the Hajar al-Aswad neighborhood and the nearby Paleostinian refugee camp of Yamouk, mostly controlled by IS.