A top Syrian rebel leader heading powerful Jaysh al Islam insurgent group was killed in an airstrike Friday in the eastern suburbs of Dmascus known as al Ghouta.
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That claimed moderacy was undercut, however, by his group regularly holding Shi’ite residents of his territory in cages and using them as human shields, shipping them around to potential targets of Syrian airstrikes.
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Jaish al-Islam’s Alloush was a leading figure in the rebel movement in Damascus province, and had been holding a senior-level meeting in Eastern Ghouta when he was killed.
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Nearly 300,000 people have been killed in the Syrian conflict, and millions of others have been displaced. Witnesses are quoted as describing how the market became a scene of carnage in seconds.
A plan to evacuate thousands of jihadist fighters and civilians from three besieged districts of Syria’s capital was on hold Saturday, a day after an air strike killed a rebel leader. In addition to fighting government forces, the Army of Islam faction fought pitched battles against its rival, the Islamic State group near Damascus.
“We consider his assassination is a message from Russian Federation to Syrians and to the world”, Serji told BuzzFeed News.
Jaysh al-Islam, a terrorist group formed by a merger of several Syrian opposition groups in 2013, is notorious for its atrocities, including the public executions of prisoners, drawing comparisons with the Daesh militant group, which is outlawed in many countries.
Syrian rebels who spoke to BuzzFeed News said that Alloush’s killing will not stop their fight against the regime but it would only grow stronger.
His group controls large parts of the Damascus suburbs.
While the Russian Foreign Ministry did not explicitly confirm or deny any involvement in the matter, Russia’s Ministry of Defense stated that Syrian governmental forces “supported by Russian aviation continue[d] offensive operations against illegal armed groups at all directions” including in Eastern Ghouta, the site of the headquarters, on Friday.
The Syrian army said Alloush was killed as the result of intelligence on the ground, but rebels are pointing to Russian sophisticated spying planes which overfly the area constantly.
However, in eastern Syria, IS has seized a district previously held by Syrian government forces in the city of Deir el-Zour after heavy clashes with troops holed up inside, the extremist group and Syrian opposition activists said Thursday.
In July, they drew condemnation for executing 18 alleged members of the Islamic State group in a video mimicking IS’s own gruesome productions.
In a rare sign of unity over Syria, the U.N. Security Council adopted a resolution last week backing a peace process to end the civil war.
Saudi leaders have called for Assad to leave power, and intensified Russian strikes on rebel forces, including Saudi allies such as Alloush, may shake the oil-rich kingdom’s support for renewed peace efforts. The Syrian government describes the group as “terrorists” and has said it will not negotiate with such factions.
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Alloush’s group is accused of kidnapping lawyer and human rights defender Razan Zaitounah more than two years ago. Alawites are a Shiite offshoot to which Assad’s family also belongs.
