Syria: al-Nusra Leader Killed in Airstrike

Local Editor

A prominent leader in Syrian al-Qaida offshoot al-Nusra Front was killed on Sunday in an air raid in the militant held north-west province of Idlib alongside at least 20 other militants including foreign extremists.

In this regard, militant sympathizers reported that Abu Firas, known as "the Syrian", was killed in a suspected Syrian or Russian air raid on a village north-west of the city of Idlib.

Abu Firas was a well-known figure who had many followers within the hardline group and who gave commentaries released by al-Nusra Front on sensitive issues ranging from governance to religious jurisprudence.

Another source said Abu Firas was a founding member of the militant group who fought in Afghanistan in the 1980s and also worked with Osama bin Laden.

The militant who supported the imposition of the deviated extremist Islamic sharia across Syria was killed alongside his son and Uzbekistan fighters in a strike that also targeted the militant Jund al-Aqasa group in the village of Kafr Jales in mainly non-government-controlled Idlib province, sources added.

Meanwhile, a fragile "cessation of hostilities" truce has been in place in Syria for over a month as the various parties try to negotiate an end to Syria's five-year war.

But the truce excludes Daesh [the Arabic acronym for the terrorist "ISIS" group] and al-Nusra Front, and air and land attacks by Syrian and allied forces continue in parts of Syria those groups are present.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team