Syria rebel group names new chiefs after blast kills leaders

BEIRUT // A Syrian rebel group named a new leader and military chief on Wednesday, less than 24 hours after an explosion killed nearly a dozen of its senior figures in a devastating blow to one of the most powerful factions in the country’s armed opposition.

The group, Ahrar Al Sham, has been among the steadiest and most effective forces fighting to oust president Bashar Al Assad in Syria’s civil war. It has also been on the front lines of a now nine-month battle in northern Syria against the extremist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group.

The deaths of so many of its leaders throws Ahrar Al Sham’s future into question, while also laying bare the tangled dynamics of Syria’s broader anti-Assad scene just as the United States is considering injecting itself into the country’s conflict by going after the Islamic State group. Washington’s efforts to crush the extremists could include ramping up support for Syria’s rebels.

The US has long looked askance at Ahrar Al Sham, considering the group too radical for Washington’s tastes and too cozy with the Al Qaida-linked Nusra Front. For that reason, the limited support Washington has provided so far to rebels was not directed Ahrar Al Sham’s way.

But the group managed to fuse its ultraconservative religious views with a more practical political position, allowing it to act as a bridge of sorts between the more moderate western-backed rebel groups and hardline factions. And although Washington had qualms about working with the group, Ahrar Al Sham has been a fierce enemy of ISIL, and has lost thousands of men since January fighting the extremists.

The question now is whether Ahrar Al Sham can survive the loss of nearly all of its senior members, including top boss Hassan Aboud. They were killed late on Tuesday when an explosion struck a high-level meeting in the town of Ram Hamdan in Syria’s Idlib province.

It was not immediately clear who was behind Tuesday’s explosion, and there even were conflicting reports on the nature of the blast. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it was a car bombing. Ahrar Al Sham’s simply described it as an explosion.

On Wednesday, a spokesman for the group said in a video statement posted online that Hashem Al Sheik, also known as Abu Jaber, would assume overall leadership of the group, while Abu Saleh Tahan would fill the role of military commander. The spokesman also said Ahrar Al Sham would forge ahead with its fight against Mr Al Assad as well as ISIL.

* Associated Press