Militant groups in Syria on Saturday mourned the death of a powerful rebel commander killed the previous day in an airstrike near Damascus — a high-profile assassination that may shift the balance of power in rebel-held suburbs of the country’s capital.
Zahran Allouch, the head of the Army of Islam group, was killed in an airstrike that targeted the group’s headquarters during a meeting on Friday. He was instantly killed along with a number of commanders from the ultraconservative Ahrar al-Sham and the Faylaq al-Rahman groups.
His death may also have contributed — at least partially — to a delay in the agreed-on pullout of thousands of militants and their families from neighborhoods on the southern edge of Damascus.
The pullout, which was supposed to start on Saturday, was to involve mainly militants from the ISIS group who earlier this year overran the Yarmouk area, which is home to a Palestinian refugee camp and has been hotly contested and fought-over in the Syrian conflict, and two adjacent neighborhoods.
A Palestinian official in Damascus, Anwar Abdulhadi, told The Associated Press that the withdrawal is being delayed for “logistical reasons.” But lebanon’s Hezbollah-run TV station Al Manar said that Allouch was a key figure in arranging the rare deal, and that his assassination has delayed its implementation. The report could not be immediately confirmed by the AP.
Allouch’s killing — a month before peace talks are scheduled to begin between the Syrian government and opposition rebel groups — is a blow to insurgents fighting to topple President Bashar Assad and a boost to government forces who have been bolstered by the Russian military intervention in Syria in the past few months.
Syrian Government forces have been on the offensive in several parts of the country since Russia began its military campaign in late September to shore up Assad’s forces.
The Army of Islam took part earlier this month in an opposition meeting held in Saudi Arabia to agree on an opposition delegation that would negotiate with Assad’s government representatives in peace talks planned for late January in Geneva. The Syrian government describes the group as “terrorists” and has said it will not negotiate with such factions.
The Syrian army claimed responsibility for the airstrike that killed Allouch, although many among the opposition blamed Russia.
“The martyrdom of Sheikh Zahran Allouch should be a turning point in the history of the revolution and rebel groups should realize they are facing a war of extermination by (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s regime,” said labib Nahhas, a senior member of the Ahrar al-Sham group.