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Senior Ajnad al-Sham militant commander slain in northern Syria

Thursday, 23 June 2016 9:00 PM [ Last Update: Thursday, 23 June 2016 9:00 PM ]

This file photo shows members of the Takfiri Ajnad al-Sham militant group near Syria’s northwestern city of Idlib.

A high-ranking commander of the Takfiri Ajnad al-Sham militant group has been killed during fierce clashes with Syrian army troopers and allied forces in Syria’s northern province of Aleppo.

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

Shartah reportedly served as the military leader of the Ajnad al-Sham terror group, which joined the foreign-sponsored militant alliance of Jaish al-Fatah (‎‎Army of Conquest) on March 24, 2015, and took part in the onslaught on Idlib then.

The development came only a day after a senior commander of the al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Nusra Front militant group 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 that 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.

Majed Hussein al-Sadeq, slain leader of Ahrar al-Sham

Last July, one of Ahrar al-Sham's most senior leaders, identified as Abu Abdel Rahman Salqin, was killed after two unidentified bombers detonated their explosives at the terrorist group’s bases in the Abu Talha area of Idlib. Six other high-ranking members of the terrorist group were also killed in the deadly incident.

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.

A ceasefire brokered by the US and Russia went into effect on February 27 in Syria, but it does not apply to the Daesh and al-Nusra Front terrorist groups.

The Syrian army has vowed to press ahead with its counter-terror operations and drive terrorists out of their major positions.

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