A leading Syrian rebel leader has been killed by a Russian air strike in a suburb of Damascus.
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Alloush and four senior-level officers were killed Thursday when their high-level meeting was bombed by warplanes, the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. While Russia supports Assad, and reports have said that many rebels fighting Assad’s regime have also been killed in these strikes.
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Jaysh al-Islam, whose fighters number tens of thousands, took part in the conference in the Saudi capital which agreed a common approach among disparate rebel groups for UN-backed peace talks planned for January.
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Alloush’s death comes one month before peace talks between Syrian leadership and the opposition were set to start in Geneva.
Fears have now sparked among the Damascenes about possible retaliation from the Islam Army for the killing of their leader, amid expectations that fresh and intensified mortar attack could be triggered against Damascus after Alloush’s death.
It said Alloush focused on preventing the expansion of Islamic State militants in areas on the outskirts of Damascus.
Alloush was arrested in 2009 and was released in June 2011 in a general amnesty, just three months after Syria’s uprising against President Bashar al-Assad erupted. It is seen as the most organised rebel organisation.
He said many of those injured in the attack are being treated at the destroyed hospital.
Zahran Alloush, head of the Jaysh al Islam (Islam Army), was taken out during an operation by Syrian forces using newly provided Russian missiles.
Alloush’s death occurs amid intensifying diplomacy over the Syrian crisis, which has killed more than 250,000 people, displaced millions and emboldened terrorist groups such as the Islamic State.
Alloush, a one-time building contractor and son of an influential Salafist preacher now living in Saudi Arabia, was arrested in 2009 on charges of weapons possession and placed in prison.
Friday’s attacks, which notably targeted the opposition stronghold of Eastern Ghouta, killed Zahran Alloush, head of the Army of Islam.
His group defended an area that has faced repeated and indiscriminate air raids by the government. He cited a video in which he said Alloush calls for cleansing Damascus of all Shiites and “Nusayris” – an old term for the country’s Alawite minority, of which Assad is a member.
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He was noted as a charismatic leader of the group, and claimed Al Qaeda regional affiliate Al Nusrah front as an ally.
