Zahran Alloush: Top Syrian rebel leader killed in Damascus air strike
A top Syrian rebel leader and head of the most powerful insurgent group in the eastern suburbs of Damascus has been killed in an aerial raid that targeted the group's headquarters, rebel sources and the Syrian army say.
The death of Zahran Alloush, head of Jaysh al Islam, is a big blow to rebel control of the rural eastern suburban area of Damascus known as al Ghouta, the rebels said.
Defence experts said the disarray among the rebel forces could also consolidate Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's control over the rest of the area.
Several rebel leaders have been killed since Russia began an aerial campaign on September 30 in support of its ally Mr Assad, although Moscow has insisted that it is concentrating its attacks on Islamic State.
The rebel sources said that in the raid Russian planes targeted a secret headquarters of the group, which is the largest rebel faction in the area and has about 15,000 to 20,000 fighters according to Western intelligence.
Jaysh al Islam has effectively been running the administration of the Eastern Ghouta area since 2013, when the group was formed from an amalgamation of scores of rebel brigades.
The rebels said Alloush was killed while holding a meeting with other rebel leaders in the Marj area in al-Ghouta that has been the target of a major Syrian assault in the last few weeks.
Jaysh al Islam was one of the main rebel groups that attended a recent Saudi-backed opposition meeting in Riyadh and will be negotiating with Mr Assad's government in Geneva.
Alloush ideologically at odds with Islamic State and Al Qaeda
Before setting up Jaysh al Islam, Alloush had founded Liwa al-Islam, or the Brigade of Islam, with his father Abdallah, a Salafist Syrian cleric based in Saudi Arabia.
He represented the Salafists in Syria who do not share the international ambitions of Al Qaeda's militants, many of them foreign, who want to drive Westerners out of the Middle East and unite Muslims in a single state.
Alloush, who was released by the Syrian authorities at the start of the conflict in 2011 when it let scores of Islamist detainees go free, had been criticised for a clampdown on dissidents in the areas he controlled.
Activists also accused him of kidnapping several of their prominent figures including Razan Zeitouneh and her companions in 2013.
Alloush was ideologically at odds with Islamic State and Al Qaeda, espousing a more moderate brand of Islam. He fought against ultra-hardline militants and drove them out of his territory.
Syria has long accused Saudi Arabia of financing arms and other supplies to Alloush. But there have also been reports that while on regional visits to countries hostile to Mr Assad's government including Turkey and Saudi Arabia, Alloush failed to win the support he wanted for his group.
Al-Ghouta has been under siege for years and has been the target of some of the most intensive raids on civilians living in the once heavily populated area.
A chemical gas attack in Ghouta in August 2013 that the United States said killed 1,400 people and which the West blamed on forces loyal to Mr Assad prompted the threat of Western military intervention in the country.
Much of the capital remains firmly in President Assad's
posted by Satish Sharma at
01:31
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