A prominent Iraqi jihadist leader in the northwest of Syria was killed in a suicide bombing, announced on Friday his group and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) war monitor.
“Abu Maria al-Qahtani was martyred after a treacherous attack by an Islamic State group member using an explosive belt,” said former Al-Qaeda affiliate Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), on its affiliated Amjad media outlet. HTS rules over about half of Idlib province and parts of neighbouring Hama, Aleppo and Latakia.
Qahtani, whose real name is Maysar Ali Musa Abdallah al-Juburi, “was killed and two of his companions seriously injured after a suicide bomber blew himself up,” said the SOHR.
The Observatory, with a network of sources in Syria, did not provide further details about the identity of the suicide bomber.
No group has so far claimed responsibility for Qahtani’s killing.
Qahtani was one of HTS’ most powerful jihadists and one of the founders of the group’s former iteration: Al-Nusra front.
Qahtani had been under United States sanctions since 2012. The treasury accused him of having travelled to Syria in 2011 to transfer al-Qaeda’s ideology there, before occupying leading roles in al-Nusra Front.
He was killed shortly after being released from an HTS prison, where he had been detained for seven months on accusations of collaborating with an enemy party, according to the monitor.
On March 7, HTS released Qahtani and acquitted him of the accusations.
Syria has been ravaged by 13 years of a war that killed more than half a million people and pushed millions to flee.
With AFP
