Syrian army says it killed rebel commander

The group is thought to have chosen one of their top military commanders, Abu Hammam al Buwaidani, as their new head.

The Jaysh al-Islam (Army of Islam) movement is the predominant opposition faction in the Eastern Ghouta rebel bastion east of Damascus.

His group was behind the shelling of Damascus in recent months with mortar shells, including an attack that targeted the Russian Embassy.

The Army of Islam was to have participated in that process.

The military chief was a jailed Salafi activist, who after his release from prison in 2011 established a rebel battalion to overthrow the government of President Bashar al-Assad.

“They killed a man who was going to play a crucial role in Syria”, Ahmad Tumah, the designated opposition prime minister, told Al Jazeera on Saturday.

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.

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

In a massive attack in February, Jaysh al-Islam insurgents fired 40 rockets at civilian homes in Damascus, leaving dozens of civilians wounded and at least three dead.

He said buses standing by to transfer the evacuees had left empty and “the plan was on hold until Jaish al-Islam reorganises itself”.

We welcome strong opinions and criticism of our work, but we don’t want comments to become bogged down with discussions of our policies and we will moderate accordingly. “Now al-Nusra has different Sharia advisers, and ours have many disagreements with them, ideologically and intellectually”. He denies holding them although they were kidnapped from an area under Army of Islam control. But he had plenty of criticism about democracy. Alloush initially made no bones about it, he sought to replace Assad with a non-democratic Islamist order, deeming democracy to be a corrupt form of governance.

The death of Zahran Alloush, 44, head of Jaysh al Islam, is a big blow to rebel control of the rural eastern suburban area of Damascus known as al Ghouta, the rebel sources said. “But the current administration refuses to play this role and acts with cold blood when it comes to Syria”.

In contrast to other non-Jihadist rebels, Islamic State has been totally opposed to any deal with the Assad government.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem said on Thursday that Damascus was ready to take part in peace talks in Geneva and hoped that the dialogue would help it form a national unity government.

Buwaydani is a 40-year-old businessman and fighter from Douma in Eastern Ghouta who hails from a family with strong ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, the monitor said. In a video posted on the Internet late Friday, the group said Allouch’s killing “will only increase our fight” against Assad’s government and the Islamic State.

The SDF can now cross into IS-controlled territory along the river’s western bank, bringing it less than 30 kilometres (20 miles) from Manbij, an IS stronghold.