Key al-Qaida militant reportedly killed in Syria
Source: Associated Press
Key al-Qaida militant reportedly killed in Syria
AP foreign, Monday January 27 2014
BASSEM MROUE
Associated Press= BEIRUT (AP) A senior figure in an al-Qaida-linked group in Syria has been killed in a bloody dispute with rival rebel factions that has raged for more than three weeks across opposition-held parts of the country, activists and an Iraqi intelligence official said Monday.
Heavy fighting between the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and rival rebels has left more than 1,400 people dead across northern Syria since Jan. 3. The clashes, which erupted after months of growing resentment against the Islamic State's heavy-handed tactics in the territory under its control, are the most serious among the opponents of Syrian President Bashar Assad since the country's civil war began.
The senior militant, an Iraqi who went by the nom de guerre of Haji Bakr, was killed earlier this month in the town of Tal Rifaat in the northern province of Aleppo, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group. That corresponded to reports provided by two activists based in the city of Aleppo, Hassan Kattan and another who spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons.
A senior Iraqi intelligence official who specializes in al-Qaida said Haji Bakr was assassinated in a killing tied to the dispute between the Islamic State and other armed opposition groups.
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