After the head of one of the most powerful rebel groups fighting Syrian President Bashar Assad was killed in a strike targeting the group’s headquarters during a Friday meeting, the group has picked a new leader.
The Army of Islam named field commander Essam al-Buwaydhani on Saturday as its new leader, according to the Associated Press.
He replaces Zahran Allouch. Allouch was killed during a meeting of rebel commanders near the Damascus suburb of Otaya, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. A number of other commanders from two other rebel groups, Ahrar al-Sham and Faylaq al-Rahman, were also killed.
The Syrian military claimed responsibility for the airstrike in a statement published by the state-run SANA news agency. The statement said the operations targeted “terrorist” organizations.
The death of Allouch, who was in his mid 40s and supported by Saudi Arabia and Turkey, is considered a setback for rebels fighting to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad. It is a boost to government forces that have been helped by the Russian military intervention begun a few months ago.
His death could help explain a delay in an agreement for thousands of militants and their families to leave neighborhoods in south Damascus.
Anwar Abdulhai, a Palestinian official, told the AP the withdrawal is delayed for “logistical reasons.” But Lebanon’s Hezbollah-run TV station Al Manar said that Allouch was so critical to the deal and that his assassination caused the delay.
“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.
Other insurgent groups, including an al Qaeda-linked group, the Nusra Front, deplored Allouch’s killing.
In a video posted late Thursday, a spokesman for the Army of Islam said Allouch’s killing “will only increase our fight” against Assad’s regime and the Islamic State group.
