LATEST: Video — Syrian Forces Push Insurgents Back from Frontline Near Hama
UPDATE 0745 GMT: The insurgent faction Ahrar as-Sham has quickly named a new leadership to replace political and military commanders killed on Tuesday night by a suicide bomb.
A high-ranking emir, Mujahid Sheikh Abu Hashim Sheikh Jaber, has been named as the successor to slain head Hassan Abboud.
Video from February 2013:
Abu Saleh Tahan has been named deputy head — an interview with him from January 2013:
Syria’s insurgency suffered a deadly blow on Tuesday night when a suicide bomber — likely to be from the jihadist Islamic State — killed dozens of commanders, including Hassan Abboud (pictured), a leader of the Islamic Front bloc and the Ahrar as-Sham faction.
No group officially claimed the attack. Initial reports indicated the bomber was from the Liwa Dawood faction, which joined the Islamic State this summer. However, other unconfirmed accounts — including that of the Islamic Front, which confirmed the deaths of the commanders — said the cause was a car bomb, while a supposed “senior member of Ahrar al Sham” tweeted that the explosion was in a workshop for manufacturing bombs, adjacent to a windowless meeting room.
A reporter for opposition Orient TV said that doctors found most of the commanders died from smoke inhalation.
Others killed by the blast included Ahrar as-Sham’s top military commander Abu Talha al-Ghab; religious leaders Abu Abdelmalek al-Sharei and Abu Sariya al-Shami; and Abul-Zubeir al-Hamawi, who led Ahrar al-Sham’s head in Hama Province.
The commanders were gathering in the town of Ram Hadan in northern Idlib Province to discuss next steps against the jihadists, whom they have been battling since January. The Orient TV reporter added that they were considering whether Ahrar as-Sham should join a new rebel coalition, the Council for Leading the Revolution, including “moderate” insurgents who receive some US aid.
The preparatory meeting of 60 factions in the Council, with Ahrar as-Sham absent:
Washington has always maintained its distance from the Islamic Front and Ahrar as-Sham, with many officials viewing them as “Islamist” organizations and some spreading the claim that Ahrar as-Sham is close to Jabhat al-Nusra, an insurgent faction listed as a terrorist group by the US.
A video of Hassan Abboud’s last statement, speaking about the Council for Leading the Revolution to challenge both the Assad regime and the Islamic State:
The bombing was celebrated not only by Islamic State supporters but also by the Syrian regime, which hailed the killing of leaders of the “Ahrar al-Sham terrorist organization”.
Abboud was the leader of Ahrar al-Sham, formed just after the Syrian uprising began in March 2011 and President Assad released some political detainees from Sednaya Prison in Damascus. He was one of the executive of the Islamic Front, a bloc of seven major insurgent factions created in November 2013, and was prominent in the political fight against the Islamic State.
Video: Syrian Forces Push Insurgents Back from Frontline Near Hama
Footage of Syrian troops entering Khattab, near Hama Military Airport and Hama city, after insurgents withdrew following airstrikes and shelling:
The advance into Khattab, northwest of Hama, relieves some of the weeks-long pressure by insurgents on the airport, one of the most important for the Assad regime.
Opposition fighters, who were as close as two kilometers to the complex, had reduced its operations by 80% with their attacks and Grad rocket strikes.
Video: Ground Battle Continues in Jobar in Damascus
Footage from the insurgent frontline in Jobar in Damascus, holding off weeks of air and ground attacks by regime forces:
Video: Latest Insurgent Advances in Offensive in Quneitra Province in Southwest
Insurgents continue their seizure of territory in Quneitra Province in southwest Syria, in an offensive that has last through the summer — latest video shows them in al-Mal village and the Tel Mal hilltop, east of Quneitra town:
