THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2014 INTERNATIONAL Killing of key Syria rebel chiefs deals oppn blow BEIRUT: A blast has wiped out the leader- a visiting fellow at the Brooking Doha ages to recover and sustain its relevance Pierret, a Syria specialist at the University coalition, and it is possible that part of ship of a pragmatic Islamist rebel brigade Centre, in an analysis of the attack. The as a major Islamist faction, the Islamic of Edinburgh. Pierret said the implications Ahrar’s base will join the Islamic State,” he in Syria, dealing a new blow to the coun- coalition could now splinter between Front may now be beyond repair,” he for the United States were more complex. told AFP. In his first address after being try’s armed opposition that could splinter more moderate elements, who could drift wrote. That splintering could paradoxically The United States has never backed the named chief yesterday, Ahrar Al-Sham’s its most important coalition. Late Tuesday towards Western-backed rebel brigades, benefit both groups more moderate and group, so its weakening “is not necessarily new leader Abu Jaber appeared to make 47 members of Ahrar Al-Sham’s leadership and more radical members and factions, more radical than Ahrar Al-Sham, he said. bad news for Washington,” he said. reference to the risk of the group’s disinte- were killed when a blast hit a meeting of who could join either the Islamic State or “Leaderless fighters can spill either way. But in the mid-term, the attack could gration. “Don’t lose hope because hope- its top religious and military chiefs in the Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra Front. Some may opt for FSA-aligned factions.” stand to complicate US efforts to tackle IS, lessness is destructive,” he said in a video northeastern province of Idlib, including he said, referring to the Western-backed he added. “It could remove from the mili- message. “Don’t let this catastrophe shake its chief Hassan Abboud, known by the Islamic Front faces collapse Free Syrian Army. “But more committed tary equation a key part of the anti-IS your confidence and scatter you.” —AFP name Abu Abdullah Al-Hamawi. Ahrar Al-Sham-said to group together Salafis (conservative Islamists) may find No group has claimed the blast and some 10,000 to 20,000 fighters-has always the Nusra Front more to their liking. Ahrar Al-Sham has yet to officially blame espoused a conservative Islamist bent, Others still could decide to join the Islamic any party for the attack. Instead it moved openly seeking the establishment of an State,” Lund said, using a Militarily, experts quickly to name new leaders, designating Islamic government in Syria and working said the group’s decapitation was unlikely Hashem Al-Sheikh, also known as Abu alongside Al-Nusra on various battlefronts. to have immediate consequences for Jaber, to replace Abboud as Ahrar’s chief, But the group never backed the transna- either the battle against the regime or the and Abu Saleh Tahhan as his military chief. tional jihadist ideology of the Islamic State Islamic State. The group is one of the oldest and largest and was often seen as a bridge between of Syria’s armed opposition groups, estab- more moderate and radical strands of the Islamic State, regime to benefit lished in 2011 by Islamists released by the opposition. But both would stand to benefit, Syrian regime early in the uprising against Lister said the new leadership could experts said. IS “is the principal beneficiary President Bashar Al-Assad. shift that balance. “It would seem Ahrar Al- of the killings,” said Noah Bonsey, a senior It is also the most important part of the Sham’s senior leadership has lost a bal- analyst on Syria at the International Crisis key Islamic Front rebel coalition, which has ance it previously managed between Group.”Ahrar Al-Sham is a key component battled Assad’s regime and jihadists from moderates and hardliners, with the latter of anti-IS rebel forces in the north, and ISIS the Islamic State group, expelling it from now more openly dominant,” he wrote. will aim to exploit any potential unravel- parts of northern Syria. The fate of that Aron Lund, an expert on the Syrian con- ing,” he said. coalition could now hang in the balance, flict writing for the Carnegie Endowment Syria’s government, meanwhile, “has an An image grab taken from a propaganda video by Syria’s Islamist Ahrar experts said. “The most significant conse- for International Peace, echoed the assess- interest in weakening the rebels so it can Al-Sham group shows its members taking part in a training session at an quence is that the fate of the Islamic Front ment of the Islamic Front’s fragility. present itself to the West as the sole obsta- now looks desperate,” wrote Charles Lister, “Unless Ahrar Al-Sham somehow man- cle facing the Islamic State,” added Thomas undisclosed location in Syria. —AFP Syrian Islamist group names Hashem new leader after blast Ahrar Al-Sham losing ground to IS BEIRUT: Syrian Islamist insurgent with Ahrar Al-Sham, said a doctor Syria had been “cleansed” of his pres- group Ahrar Al-Sham has appointed who examined the bodies said ence. In January another senior a new leader and military chief after there was little visible sign of exter- Ahrar al-Sham leader, Abu Khaled Al- their predecessors were killed in a nal injuries. Soury, was killed in a suicide attack. blast on Tuesday, a video statement The doctor saw bodies with Soury had fought alongside al Qaeda from the group said. The explosion frothing at the mouth and fluid founder Osama bin Laden and was in northwestern Syria killed at least coming from the eyes and noses, close to its current chief Ayman Al- 12 including Ahrar Al-Sham’s leader Abu Baraa said, adding the group Zawahri. Hassan Aboud, according to the had been meeting in a heavily forti- Islamic State, also known as ISIL, hardline group, part of the Islamic fied underground bunker. “This was denied involvement in that attack Front alliance that has been fighting a highly sophisticated attack in a after being blamed for it. Ahrar Al- Islamic State militants as well as the Syrian army. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a group that moni- tors the conflict, said an explosion killed 28 of Ahrar Al-Sham’s com- manders, dealing a major blow to the group that is believed to have received funds from Gulf states. In a MOSUL: Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga fighters fire at Islamic-State (IS) militant positions, from their position video statement, Ahrar Al-Sham on the top of Mount Zardak, a strategic point taken 3 days ago, about 25 kilometres east of Mosul. —AFP said its council had appointed Hashem Al-Sheikh, also known as “Abu Jaber”, as leader and Abu Saleh Tahan as military chief. It pledged to keep fighting against Syrian govern- ment forces and Islamic State. The loss of senior leadership came at a significant time for Ahrar Al-Sham, said Charles Lister, visiting fellow at the Brookings Doha An image grab shows the new leader of Ahrar Al-Sham group, Center. “This potentially crippling Hashem Al-Sheikh, known as Abu Jaber, speaking at an undisclosed blow comes during a period in location in Syria. —AFP which Ahrar al-Sham’s senior offi- cials have begun adopting more location that was very secure,” he Sham, which has it said wants to moderate stances in Syria, including said. Photos posted on social media implement Islamic sharia law in Syria, considering joining larger moderate claiming to show the victims of the was at one point considered among coalitions,” he wrote in an analysis. attack displayed bodies that did not the strongest insurgent groups in the Some 50 of the group’s leaders appear to have significant external civil war. But it has been overtaken by had been gathered at a house when injuries. the radical Islamic State group, which the blast went off inside the meet- Other reports suggested that the has seized territory in Syria and Iraq ing, according to the Observatory. victims had died from smoke inhala- and which considers other Islamist There has been no claim of respon- tion. It was not possible to independ- groups as its rivals. US Secretary of sibility for the blast, which took ently verify any of the reports or pic- State John Kerry arrived in Baghdad place in Syria’s Idlib province. Some tures or the cause of the deaths. yesterday as part of a tour of the observers have described Tuesday’s Some supporters of rival group Middle East aimed at building mili- incident as a gas attack. Abu Baraa, Islamic State celebrated Aboud’s tary, political and financial support to a rebel figure from a group allied death on social media, saying that defeat Islamic State. —Reuters Hunger strike on for release of Egypt political prisoners CAIRO: Dozens of Egyptians have Soueif said she and her daugh- old Yassin Mohammed, a student begun a hunger strike to demand ter Mona, also a human rights who was still a school boy when the release of activist Alaa Abdel activist, had begun their hunger he joined the protests that top- Fattah, a symbol of the 2011 upris- strike on Aug. 28, as had her other pled Mubarak. He sat in a shady ing, and others they say are being daughter Sanaa, who is detained corner of a cafe near the court unfairly detained in an effort to in a separate case. Omar Robert with other activists before the crush new-found freedoms.