Al Qaeda-linked rebel leader reported killed in Syria.

Al Qaeda-linked rebel leader reported killed in Syria.

Los Angle Time | 24 Sep 2013 :: A leader of an Al Qaeda-linked rebel group in Syria has been assassinated, activists said Monday, further inflaming hostilities between opposition fighters and potentially throwing into greater disarray those trying to oust PresidentBashar Assad.

Abu Abdullah Libi, the self-styled emir of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria in the northern province of Idlib, was killed Sunday when the vehicle he was riding in was sprayed with bullets, rebels and activists said.

One activist with close ties to the Islamic State said Libi was probably on his way to the village of Hazano, where fighting between his group and mainstream Free Syrian Army rebels erupted earlier in the day, in a bid to negotiate a cease-fire.

As Libi passed through a Free Syrian Army checkpoint, his vehicle came under fire from several directions, said the activist, who goes by the alias Junood for security reasons. Other activists and rebels said the ambush happened on a stretch of highway not controlled by any one group and was carried out by unknown assailants.

A spokesman for the Free Syrian Army denied that its fighters were involved, although the group is far from cohesive.

The incident is certain to cause a further fracturing of the relationship between the two rebel groups, which have by turns fought alongside and against each other.  Activists in Idlib said they feared the Islamic State would retaliate and there would be more fighting.

That would be one more setback for the rebels, whose foreign backers have been slow to send promised military aid because of fears that extremists in their midst are gaining influence.  Fighters within the Free Syrian Army increasingly accuse the Islamic State of being interested only in seizing areas already controlled by the opposition to establish an Islamic caliphate.(Courtesy:Los Angle Time)

Free Syrian Army Killing Exposes Rebel Rifts.

Free Syrian Army Killing Exposes Rebel Rifts.

Jihadists and moderates in the opposition are increasingly turning on each other threatening a conflict within the rebel movement.

The Free Syrian Army has threatened retaliation over the killing

UK  13 Jul 2013 :: The assassination of a senior Free Syrian Army (FSA) commander by militants linked to al Qaeda is tantamount to a declaration of war, FSA rebels have said.

Kamal Hamami - better known as Abu Bassir al Jeblawi - of the FSA Supreme Military Council was killed by members of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, a hardline Islamist group, on Thursday.

A senior FSA commander said the al Qaeda-linked militants had previously warned FSA rebels that there was "no place" for them in the northern Latakia province, where Hamami was killed.

He added that there would be retaliation for the killing.

"We are going to wipe the floor with them. We will not let them get away with it because they want to target us," he said on condition of anonymity

The statement is the latest sign of disarray in the armed opposition to Syrian President Bashar al Assad, who has regained the upper hand more than two years into an insurgency that grew out of Arab Spring-inspired pro-democracy protests.

Opposition sources said the killing of Mr Hamami followed a dispute over control of a strategic checkpoint in Latakia.

"FSA rebels fired into the air, and subsequently, an ISIS fighter shot Abu Bassir dead and wounded two other fighters from his battalion," the opposition Syrian Observatory For Human Rights said

The Observatory for Human Rights added that the FSA and the Islamic State have had violent exchanges in several areas of Syria over the past few weeks, showing growing antagonism between Assad's foes.

"Last Friday, the Islamic State killed an FSA rebel in Idlib province and cut his head off. There have been attacks in many provinces," the Observatory's Rami Abdelrahman said.

FSA Supreme Command Political Coordinator Louay Mekdad said Mr Hamami and his brother were shot dead at the roadblock by Abu Ayman al Baghdadi, the Islamic State's Emir of the coastal region.

He said a fighter who was travelling with them was set free to rely the message that the Supreme Command was now an al Qaeda target.

"If these people came to defend the Syrian revolution and not help the Assad regime, then they have to hand over the killers," Mr Mekdad said.

Syria's conflict turned violent in the face of a crackdown on protests. Civil war ensued with disparate rebel groups taking up arms and the Observatory says more than 100,000 people have been killed.

The FSA and the jihadists have sometimes joined forces on the battlefield but the divisions have been highlighted as the West considers arming the FSA and some Gulf states have funnelled weapons to the Islamists.

US congressional committees are holding up plans to arm the rebels because of fears that such deliveries will not be decisive and the arms might end up in the hands of Islamist militants.(Courtesy:Sky News)

Syrian army 'totally controls' Qusayr region: state TV.

 AFP

A Syrian army soldier sits
 in his tank in the southwestern
 neighborhood of the Syrian
 city of Qusayr. — Photo AFP

DAMASCUS|05|June|2013:: Syria's army has overrun the strategic region of Qusayr after a blistering offensive against rebel fighters, state television said on Wednesday, marking a major victory for regime forces in the 26-month conflict.

The battlefield success comes as officials from Russia, the US and the UN gathered in Geneva Wednesday to work on a peace conference for Syria in the wake of fresh allegations that the Damascus regime has used chemical weapons.

“The Syrian army totally controls the Qusayr region in Homs province after killing a large number of terrorists and capturing others,” the television report said, using the regime's terminology for the rebels.

President Bashar al-Assad's forces backed reportedly by thousands of fighters from Lebanon's Hezbollah movement launched an offensive to retake Qusayr, a key region on the Lebanon border, on May 19.

Rebels fighting to retain control of Qusayr town were later joined by hundreds of reinforcements from Lebanon, most close to the Muslim Brotherhood, leading to pitched battles in which civilians, many of them wounded, became trapped.

Doctors had appealed for the Red Cross to be allowed in to treat the wounded but Syrian officials said this would only be permitted once the rebels had been defeated.

Civilians who had managed to flee Qusayr described it as “a ghost town, heavily damaged and filled with the sound of bombs,” the UN refugee agency UNHCR said Tuesday.(Courtesy:Dawn) Read More>>>