Allouch’s death a month before expected peace talks between government and opposition representatives in Geneva is a blow to insurgents fighting to topple Assad and a boost to government forces who have been bolstered by the Russian military intervention in Syria in the past few months.
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The group took part in a Syrian opposition meeting in Riyadh earlier this month that was meant to determine who would represent the rebels in negotiations with the Syrian government.
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A UN-sponsored deal to evacuate more than 2,000 Isis fighters and other militants from rebel-held parts of south Damascus has been delayed, a monitor of the war said on Saturday, after a rebel commander was killed.
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The UN envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, said on Saturday that it aimed to start the talks on January 25 in Geneva. He has denied holding them, although they were abducted from an area under the control of the Army of Islam.
Several opposition groups also mourned Allouch’s death and accused the government and its allies of trying to eliminate rival groups ahead of the talks.
A rebel source said the group had chosen one of their top military commanders, Abu Hammam al Buwaidani, as their new head.
The agreement is one of a number of breakthroughs enjoyed by Syrian government forces since Russia’s air force began assistance on September 30 in the form of air strikes against Islamic terrorists.
The Army of Islam was to have participated in that process.
Separately, the Syrian army said on Friday it had fought its way close to the strategic, rebel-held Aleppo-Damascus highway – its latest gain in a major offensive supported by Iranian-backed Shi’ite militias and Russian air power.
The Local Coordination Committees said Allouch was killed by a Russian airstrike in al-Marj area near Damascus.
The deal fell a day after Zahran Alloush, the leader of the Jaysh al Islam rebel group, was killed in an air strike on Friday, as reported by the Lebanese Hezbollah’s Manar TV station.
“Their political philosophy and blueprint for the future is largely based on a similar reading of Islamic history and the Qur’an”. He replaces Islam Allouch, who was killed in the airstrike on a meeting of rebel commanders in a Damascus suburb. “We have reached an understanding with our Qatari counterparts about what we can do to help make sure such a delegation [of the Syrian opposition] is formed so the Syrian talks can be effective”, Lavrov said.
Parts of the camp, which gained worldwide notoriety past year after a photograph depicted thousands waiting for food in the shelled city, have subsequently been taken by al-Qaeda-linked al-Nusra, as well as pro- and anti-government Palestinian groups. “Zahran Alloush’s death stands as one of the most significant opposition losses of the revolution”, he said. Men and women were put in large metal cages on pick-up trucks that drove around Damascus suburbs. A government official has said the plan would see the evacuees transferred Saturday out of Qadam, Hajar al-Aswad and the besieged Palestinian camp of Yarmuk and into northern Syria.
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“It weakens the free army factions that confronted terrorism and undermined its foundations”, the statement said.
