Top Syrian rebel leader killed in eastern suburbs of Damascus

It was not immediately clear who was behind the strike, but the Syrian military claimed responsibility in a statement.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also reported that Alloush was killed together with several commanders while they were at a meeting near the Damascus suburb of Otaya.

He was one of the most powerful rebel commanders with thousands of fighters controlling large parts of the eastern Damascus suburbs of Eastern Ghouta and Douma.

Alloush was chief of a predominant opposition faction Jaish al-Islam (Army of Islam) which is striving to oust President Bashar al-Asad.

Zahran Alloush, the leader of a prominent Syrian rebel group, is believed to have been killed in an airstrike near Syria’s capital Damascus.

But 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. While promoting a more moderate form of Islam, he was accused of cracking down on dissidents in areas he controlled; scores of jihadists were either driven out or arrested by his forces. That process aims to set in motion talks between Assad’s government and the Syrian opposition in Geneva that would establish a timeline for drafting a constitution and holding elections. In addition to fighting government forces, the Army of Islam faction fought pitched battles against its rival, the Islamic State group near Damascus.

While the Russian Foreign Ministry did not explicitly confirm or deny any involvement in the matter, Russia’s Ministry of Defense stated that Syrian governmental forces “supported by Russian aviation continue[d] offensive operations against illegal armed groups at all directions” including in Eastern Ghouta, the site of the headquarters, on Friday.

Mr 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.

With close-cropped hair and a dark beard, Alloush was typically dressed in military-style fatigues.

Twenty of the dead, including eight children, were killed in Hammuriyeh, while another six people, among them two children, died in Irbin nearby.

“Jaish al-Islam was supposed to provide safe passage through areas east of Damascus for the buses heading to Raqa”, IS’s Syria bastion, the source said by phone.

It also halted the planned evacuation of some 4,000 people, half of them jihadists, from three southern districts of Damascus.

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

The killing of Alloush has dealt a strong blow to the rebel groups operating in the surrounding of Damascus, amid reports that the Islam Army has named a man called Abu Homam al-Bwaidani as the successor of Alloush.

But with Alloush gone, that cohesion could “unravel”, Lund added.