Al-Qaeda militants kill Syrian rebel commander in Latakia

Syrian regime\'s raids on the area of Jobar, outskirts of Damascus Damascus – George Al Shami Al-Qaeda-linked militants have killed a senior Syrian rebel commander, a Free Syrian Army (FSA) official has confirmed. Supreme Military Council member Kamal Hamami, also known as Abu Bassel al-Ladkani, was meeting with members of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in the Syrian port city of Latakia when he was killed, FSA spokesman Qassem Saadeddine said.
\"The Islamic State phoned me saying that they killed Abu Bassel and that they will kill all of the Supreme Military Council,\" Saadeddine said. \"He was meeting them to discuss battle plans.\"
Though Syria’s opposition forces have incorporated groups affiliated with al-Qaeda, news of the killing of a senior FSA member could signal a serious conflict emerging between radical Islamists and more moderate members of the opposition.
The Islamic State of Iraq is considered an umbrella organisation for a long list of insurgency groups, including members linked to al-Qaeda, the former Mujahideen Shura Council, and various other groups that wish to establish a caliphate - or a unified Islamic theocracy - within the majority Sunni regions of Iraq.
The leader of the Islamic State of Iraq, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, entered northern Syria to take control of al-Qaeda operations in the country. Al-Baghdadi is accused by many in the Syrian opposition of having hijacked the opposition’s cause and being more interested in imposing radical Islam than overthrowing the current government.
The Islamist al-Nusra Front, which was officially declared a \"terrorist group\" by the US in May, is considered to be the most effective opposition group battling Bashar al-Assad. The group merged with the Islamic State of Iraq in May.
Meanwhile, Syria\'s official news agency, SANA has announced that Assad\'s soldiers carried out a series of qualitative operations in eastern Ghouta and the southern and southwestern countryside of Damascus, killing and injuring many.
SANA quoted an official source as saying that dozens were killed injured in another army operation in al-Eb farms, Douma.
In Damascus\' southern countryside, Assad’s army units carried out a series of operations in the town of Hijjera and al-Ziabieh.
On the ground, Local Coordination Committees (LCCs), were able to document, 55 fatalities across the country on Thursday, including eight women and five children. Twenty-one deaths were reported in Damascus and its suburbs; 12 in Aleppo; seven in Daraa ; three in Hama; three in Idlib; three in Homs; three in Quneitra; two in Deir Ezzor; and one in Hasakeh.
Four hundred and fifty-nine locations were bombeed. Air strikes targeted 41 locations, explosive barrels were dropped in Ras Maarah, Sahl, Jarajir, and Yabroud and its farms in Damascus suburbs, Ehsem in Idlib, and Shabaa in Damascus suburbs. Five surface-to-surface missiles targeted old Homs’ neighbourhoods and Ain Deqne in Aleppo, artillery shelling was recorded in 152 points, followed by rocket shelling in 138 points, and mortar shelling was recorded in 115 points across Syria.
The FSA clashed with regime forces at 114 locations, in Damascus and its suburbs. Rebels destroyed a regime forces soldier-carrying vehicle in Qaisa in Damascus suburbs, and targeted soldiers in eastern Ghouta. They also threw missiles at the Scientific Research Centre in Damascus. In Hama, the FSA destroyed the Mshbek checkpoint in Sahl al-Ghab.