Al-Qaeda kills Free Syrian Army rebel commander
Al-Qaeda militants kill a senior commander in the Free Syria Army, suggesting a widening rift among anti-Assad forces between Islamist fighters and more secular, western-backed elements.
An FSA source said on Thursday that Kamal Hamami, a member of the Free Syria Army’s supreme military council, was killed at a meeting with members of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, an Iraqi arm of al-Qaeda.
Hamami, better known by his alias Abu Bassel al-Ladkani, had been meeting the Islamists in Syria’s port city of Latakia to discuss battle plans.
Qassem Saadeddine, a Free Syrian Army spokesman, said: “The Islamic State phoned me saying that they killed Abu Bassel and that they will kill all of the supreme military council.”
The composition of rebel forces fighting against the regime of Bashar al-Assad is complicated and fractured.
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The Free Syrian Army has been trying to build a network of logistics and reinforce its presence across Syria. The US administration has pledged to send weapons to the group after it concluded the Syrian government had used chemical weapons.
The EU has also lifted an arms embargo, following pressure from France and the UK.
However, concerns have been raised that arming rebels could lead to weapons falling into the hands of extremists groups. The Free Syrian Army sometimes fights alongside radical groups such as Jabhat al-Nusra.
Recently, however, increased rivalries have been reported and extremist groups have been blamed for assasinations of rebel unit commanders.