Killing of Syrian Rebel Faction Leader Imperils Planned Peace Talks
Source: Wall Street Journal
BEIRUT—The leader of one of the largest rebel groups fighting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime was killed Friday in an airstrike on the outskirts of Damascus, imperiling a fragile new plan backed by the U.N. to restart peace talks.
A Syrian army general said in a televised statement that the regime’s air force bombed a rebel command center in the eastern suburbs and killed Zahran Alloush, leader of the group known as the Army of Islam, and several of his associates. He called them all “terrorists.”
But opposition activists as well as the media arm of the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah—an Assad ally playing a leading role in battles in the Damascus area—said a Russian airstrike killed Mr. Alloush and the others. Russia intervened in the Syria war in September to prop up the Assad regime.
“For sure it will cause a big delay and it may kill the whole process,” Hadi al-Bahra, a Syrian opposition leader, said of Mr. Alloush’s death. “Whoever committed this crime is pushing for a military solution, not a political process solution,” he added.
Read more: http://www.wsj.com/articles/leader-of-syrian-rebel-faction-killed-1451066717
= new reply since forum marked as read
Typical of that source and especially of this particular author (who also co-wrote "Hopeless: Barack Obama and the Politics of Illusion"
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With Islamic State flags at his sides, he really doesn't look like much of a "Partner for peace":
Zahran Alloush (AFP)
Zahran Alloush was the leader of Jaysh al-Islam terrorist group operating in the suburbs of the capital, Damascus. Jaysh al-Islam, an Islamist group formed by a merger of several Syrian opposition groups in 2013, is notorious for its atrocities, including the public executions of prisoners, drawing comparisons with the Daesh in Arabic militant group, which is outlawed in Russia and many other countries. Jaysh al-Islam has repeatedly shelled Damascus and its suburbs with mortar rounds and rockets, killing hundreds of civilians.
http://sputniknews.com/military/20151225/1032320570/zahran-alloush-death-airstrike.html
