Top rebel’s death in Syria reshuffles deck ahead of talks

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

This image made from video made available on Saturday, Dec. 26, 2015, by Al-Mayadeen, government-controlled Syrian Television, which has been verified and is consistent with other AP reporting shows, drone footage allegedly showing Syrian army airstrikes targeting Zahran Allouch, the head of the Army of Islam group near Damascus, Syria.

Other unconfirmed reports say the assassination of top rebel commander Zahran Alloush near Damascus on Friday night has torpedoed the deal to evacuate the fighters.

The move came as it was announced that Russia and Qatar have agreed on steps to encourage the Syrian opposition to sit down for talks with the Syrian government, the Russian foreign minister said Friday.

The Army of Islam and allied militant groups mourned the killing of Alloush while government supporters and the Islamic State militant group cheered his death.

Alloush’s death “stands as one of the most significant opposition losses” of Syria’s almost five-year uprising, analyst Charles Lister said on Twitter.

Militants and their families were to be given safe passage to Raqqa, the de facto capital of the Islamic State in northern Syria.

Meanwhile, a U.S.-backed coalition of rebels in Syria – including Syrian Kurdish, Arab and Christian groups – captured a major dam on the Euphrates River from the Islamic State group as part of the coalition’s march on Islamic State-held areas in northern Syria. The movement itself is a relatively minor Daraa-based group of Islamic insurgents.

Defence experts say disarray in rebel forces could consolidate Assad’s control over the rest of al-Ghouta, which has been besieged by his forces for several years and has been the target of intensive raids on civilian-populated areas.

Zahran Alloush, the commander of Jaish al-Islam, (Army of Islam, ) one of the most powerful Syrian rebel groups, was killed in a Russian Christmas Day strike in a suburb of Damascus, both pro-government and opposition media reported.

The combined developments all strengthen Assad’s position as his government prepares for peace talks that the United Nations is planning to convene in Geneva late next month.

Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV led with the news of Allouch’s killing, touting it as a victory.

Abu Hammam al-Buwaydani was elected to replace Alloush just hours after his death, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The Army of Islam took part earlier this month in an opposition meeting held in Saudi Arabia during which it agreed to take part in political talks seeking to end the 5-year-old conflict scheduled for late January in Geneva.

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

Critics accused him of sectarian politics and brutal tactics similar to that of the Islamic State group.

“Jaish al-Islam was supposed to provide safe passage through areas east of Damascus for the buses heading to Raqa”, ISIS’s Syria bastion, the source said by telephone. The AP could not immediately confirm the claim.