Top Syrian rebel leader killed in air strike

The Syrian government and its media regularly refers to Jaish al-Islam as “terrorists”, and state television did so again in the news alert announcing Alloush’s death, saying that Syria’s army command had conducted the “special operation” that killed Alloush as part of its “national mission”.

The fact that the airstrikes targeted a meeting of the group’s leadership represents an intelligence coup for the Syrian government and its foreign backer, Russia, which has led the reconnaissance and surveillance efforts since it intervened on behalf of Bashar al-Assad’s regime back in October.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said an air strike hit an Army of Islam meeting near the Damascus suburb of Otaya, killing several rebel commanders including Allouch.

Two unnamed rebel sources cited by Reuters news agency said that 44-year-old Allouch had been killed in the attack.

The Islam Army was the main rebel group responsible for the daily mortar attacks against civilian areas inside Damascus.

Alloush, who was released by the Syrian authorities at the start of the conflict in 2011 when it let scores of Islamist detainees go free, had been criticised for a crackdown on dissidents in the areas he controlled.

In Moscow, the Russian defence ministry said its continuous bombing campaign against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group in Syria had cut down oil smuggling into Turkey.

In addition to Allouch, it said the airstrike killed “a large number of commanders of Ahrar al-Sham and Faylaq al-Rahman”, other rebel factions who are often allied with Alloush’s Army of Islam.

Russia, President Assad’s strong ally, has presented a list of rebel groups it identifies as terrorists. The Army of Islam faction is the most powerful group fighting government forces as well as the Islamic State group near Damascus.

It said five aides of Alloush were also killed in the attack, the Britain-based watchdog said.

Alloush’s forces receive backing from Saudi Arabia, which has supported Syrian rebels but has thrown its weight behind the renewed diplomatic push to end the conflict.

The United Nations Security Council approved a resolution last week that calls for talks between the Syrian government and opposition groups, as well as a cease-fire in the civil war. The regime’s forces have been backed by Russian air strikes since September 30.

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

Syria has long accused Saudi Arabia of financing arms and other supplies to Alloush. Mr Alloush also ruffled feathers with pejorative remarks about religious minorities in Syria, including the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.