Alloush and five other commanders were killed “in an air strike that targeted one of their meetings in Eastern Ghouta” on Friday, the Observatory said, adding that it was unclear whether the regime or Russian Federation had been behind the raid.
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A years-long government siege of parts of Damascus controlled by a patchwork of rebel groups – of which Jaysh al Islam is the largest – has impeded the flow of food and humanitarian aid, starving many people to death in what rights group Amnesty International has described as a war crime.
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The Saudi-backed group, whose name means Army of Islam, is one of the most powerful factions in Syria’s civil war and a fierce enemy of the so-called Islamic State.
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Analysts expect Alloush’s death to have profound ripple effects on Syria’s fragmented rebel movement as well as budding peace talks.
Other unconfirmed reports say the assassination of top rebel commander Zahran Alloush near Damascus on Friday night has torpedoed the deal to evacuate the fighters.
Earlier this year, after government airstrikes on the suburbs of Damascus killed dozens, Allouch placed some Alawites that his group was holding in cages in public areas and markets, using them as human shields to try to prevent further airstrikes.
Manar is the official mouthpiece of Hezbollah, a Lebanese Shi’ite group which is a major ally of Assad and has sent its forces to fight alongside government troops.
Alloush was ideologically at odds with Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and al-Qaeda, espousing a more moderate brand of Islam. In addition to Allouch, it said the airstrike killed “a large number of commanders of Ahrar al-Sham and Faylaq al-Rahman”. However, neither Moscow nor the Syrian government confirmed the attack.
Critics accused him of sectarian politics and brutal tactics similar to that of the Islamic State group.
He is blamed by other opposition groups for the December 2013 kidnapping of four prominent activists including human rights activist and lawyer Razan Zaytouni.
They are due to leave under a United Nations-brokered deal that marks another success for the Assad government, increasing its chances of reasserting control over a strategic area just 4 km (2.5 miles) south of the centre of the capital. He replaces Islam Allouch, who was killed in the airstrike on a meeting of rebel commanders in a Damascus suburb.
Government supporters also celebrated his death, blaming his group for regularly shelling residential areas in Damascus. Even for the Alawite minority from which the Assad family hails, a religious minority that Salafis deem to be unforgivably heretical.
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“May God accept Commander Zahran Alloush among the martyrs… and may the factions of Ghouta join forces to bridge the gaps and complete the mission”, wrote Khaled Khoja, head of the opposition National Coalition, on Twitter.
