Top Syrian rebel killed in airstrike
Allouch was head of one of the most powerful Saudi-backed groups fighting against Assad
An airstrike near the Syrian capital has killed top rebel commander Zahran Allouch, the head of one of the most powerful Saudibacked insurgent groups fighting against President Bashar Assad’s government near the seat of his power, Damascus.
Allouch’s death a month before expected peace talks between government and opposition representatives 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 recently.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said an airstrike hit an Army of Islam meeting on Friday, near the Damascus suburb of Otaya, killing several rebel commanders including Allouch.
The Observatory said the warplanes struck a meeting during which Army of Islam commanders were preparing to launch an offensive against government forces and those of Lebanon’s Hezbollah near Damascus.
The Local Coordination Committees earlier said that Allouch was killed along with his deputy and chief spokesperson in an airstrike believed to be Russian in Otaya.
The Syrian military, in a statement published later Friday on the state-run SANA news agency, said that Allouch was killed in a Syrian army airstrike.
It said that the strike was carried out after a series of aerial reconnaissance operations against groupings of “terrorist” organizations and their headquarters in Eastern Ghouta. In addition to Allouch, it said the airstrike killed “a large number of commanders of Ahrar al-Sham and Faylaq al-Rahman.” It did not provide other details. It was not immediately clear how Allouch’s killing would affect his group, which is entrenched in the eastern suburbs of Damascus. Several rebel group commanders have been killed in the past — including most of the command of the ultraconservative Ahrar al-Sham group in a mysterious bombing in northern Syria last year.
For the government, it represents a further boost following recent military advances by the army, which has been on the offensive in several parts of the country since Russia began its military campaign in late September to shore up Assad’s forces.
Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV led with the news of Allouch’s killing, touting it as a victory. Syria’s state news agency SANA highlighted the news, reporting the killing of the “terrorist” Zahran Allouch. They did not say who was behind the airstrike that killed him.
The Lebanon-based AL-Mayadeen TV said Allouch was killed during a meeting to reconcile two feuding factions near Damascus. The station said 13 airstrikes hit eastern Damascus on Friday.