Militant pullout on hold from area near Damascus

Zahran Alloush, head of the Jaish al-Islam Syrian rebel group, speaks during the wedding of a fighter in the group on July 21, 2015, in the rebel-held town of Douma, on the eastern edges of the Syrian capital Damascus.

On Saturday, the Army of Islam and allied militant groups in Syria mourned the killing of Zahran Alloush, while government supporters and Islamic State cheered his death – a reflection of his role in fighting both sides in the Syrian civil war.

Despite the name of his organization, Alloush denied the group wants to spread Sharia in its areas of control.

Jaysh Al Islam has also been criticised for kidnapping opposition activists and shelling Damascus.

The Syrian Army reported that the rebel fighters had gathered to negotiate a terrorist coalition with Suqour al-Sham and al-Nusra in the battle against Syrian Army forces when they were hit by the airstrike.

The deal fell through after Zahran Alloush, through whose territory the convoy was due to pass, was killed in an air strike on Friday, the broadcaster, Manar, said. The Army of Islam faction is the most powerful group fighting government forces as well as the Islamic State group near Damascus.

This week, the United Nations announced that it would hold peace talks in Geneva early next year.

Earlier this month, the Saudi-backed Army of Syria participated in a meeting of Syrian opposition groups in an attempt to choose a delegation to negotiate with the government’s representatives.

The Observatory said it was unclear in the immediate aftermath whether the airstrike was launched by Syrian or Russian warplanes.

A top Syrian rebel leader is believed to have been killed following an airstrike on a suburb of the capital city Damascus.

“Their political philosophy and blueprint for the future is largely based on a similar reading of Islamic history and the Qur’an”.

The UN Security Council on December 18 approved a resolution backing a road map drawn up by world powers in Vienna that envisions a ceasefire, negotiations between the Syrian regime and the opposition, followed by an 18-month period to create a unity government and hold elections.

Alloush has fought against ISIL but co-operated with Jabhat Al Nusra, Al Qaeda’s Syrian branch.

That process aims to set into motion talks between Assad’s government and the Syrian opposition in Geneva that would create a timeline for drafting a new constitution and holding elections. At least 12 Jaish al-Islam members and seven from the Islamist Ahrar al-Sham group were killed.

Alloush’s group defended an area that has faced repeated and indiscriminate air raids by the government.

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. Alawites are a Shiite offshoot to which Assad’s family also belongs. Men and women were put in large metal cages on pick-up trucks that drove around Damascus suburbs.

Alloush’s death leaves so much up in the air, Lund wrote, especially in the Damascus suburbs of Ghouta.