Syrian rebel group appoints successor to slain commander

Militant groups in Syria on Saturday mourned the death of a powerful rebel commander killed the previous day in an airstrike near Damascus – a high-profile assassination that may shift the balance of power in rebel-held suburbs of the country’s capital.

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.

Jaysh al-Islam, with thousands of trained fighters, is the biggest and seen as the most organised rebel group.

Alloush’s killing, which came amid the deaths of at least 30 high-level rebels within 48 hours according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, could be a significant moment after more than four years of grinding war.

The Syrian military, in a statement published on the state-run SANA news agency, said later Friday that Allouch was killed in a Syrian army airstrike.

Other insurgent groups, including the al-Qaida branch in Syria, the Nusra Front, lamented his killing.

The Syrian army claimed responsibility for the airstrike that killed Allouch, although many among the opposition blamed Russian Federation, which has been bombing IS targets and other insurgent groups since late September.

The television added that 3,567 people, including 2,000 militants, were expected to leave the areas of Hajar al-Aswad, Qadam, Asail, and part of the Yarmuk camp areas.

Zahran Allouch, the founder of the Saudi-backed Army of Islam rebel faction, was killed Friday by an airstrike on a meeting of rebel commanders near the Damascus suburb of Otaya, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Jaish al-Islam rose to prominence in Eastern Ghouta and has remained firmly opposed to both Assad and to the Islamic State jihadist group. He was widely known to be supported by Saudi Arabia and Turkey but also fought pitched battles against rival Islamic State group near Damascus, with many crediting his group for keeping IS from making further advances toward the Syrian capital.

The Syrian army said Alloush was killed as the result of intelligence on the ground. He has denied holding them, although they were abducted from an area under the control of the Army of Islam.

Allouch regularly made sectarian comments against members of Assad’s Alawite sect as well as Shiite Muslims, although when he spoke to western media earlier this year he said all sects should be part of the rule in future Syria.

The south Damascus and Deraa deals followed an earlier local truce in Zabadani on the Lebanese border, and an agreement allowing rebels to leave a besieged part of the city of Homs, which the United Nations said could help pave the way for a nationwide truce. Such attacks have killed and wounded scores of civilians.