Senior militant commander slain in northwestern Syria

A high-ranking commander of the Takfiri Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, al-Qaeda’s Syrian branch formerly known as al-Nusra Front, has been killed in an airstrike on the outskirts of Syria’s northwestern city of Aleppo.

Reuters cited militant sources as saying on Thursday that the commander, known by the nom de guerre Abu Omar Saraqib, was killed in an aerial raid that targeted a meeting of the group’s leaders in the village of Kafr Naha.

The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that another military commander named as Abu Muslem al-Shami was also killed in the strike.

It, however, did not say who carried out the airstrike or when it took place. The US-led coalition, Russia and Syria have been conducting airstrikes against foreign-sponsored militant groups operating inside Syria.

Saraqib was reportedly leading Jabhat Fateh al-Sham’s militant activities in Aleppo.

n June 23, a prominent commander of the Takfiri Ajnad al-Sham militant group was killed during fierce clashes with Syrian army troopers and allied forces in Aleppo province.

Samir Shartah, better known by the nom de guerre Abu Mohammad Kafrouma, was killed when Syrian soldiers and fighters from pro-government popular defense groups closed in on the extremists in Duwayr al-Zaytoun village.

The development came only a day after a senior commander of al-Nusra Front was killed in the same Syrian province.

While some reports said Abu Abdullah Jabal, who led Nusra Front operations against the strategic al-Eis town and Khan Tuman village southwest of Aleppo, was killed in a Russian aerial attack, other reports said the terrorist commander lost his life in a bomb attack during a meeting with close aides.

On April 23, Majed Hussein al-Sadeq, the leader of the al-Qaeda-linked Ahrar al-Sham terrorist group, along with three other members of the militant outfit were killed in a bomb attack that targeted the Takfiri militants’ headquarters in the northwestern Syrian province of Idlib. An unspecified number of the extremists were also injured in the bombing.

Syria has been gripped by a foreign-backed militancy since March 2011. According to United Nations Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura, over 400,000 people have been killed in the conflict.