Syrian rebels say senior Al Qaeda fighter killed

BEIRUT — Two suicide bombers killed a senior Al Qaeda operative on Sunday, blowing themselves up inside the militant leader’s compound in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, rebels and activists said.

The killing of Abu Khaled Al Suri, who rebels said was serving as Al Qaeda chief Ayman Al Zawahiri’s representative in Syria, falls against the backdrop of bloody rebel infighting between an Al Qaeda-breakaway group known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), and an array of ultraconservative and more moderate opposition fighters.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Sunday’s assassination, but rebels quickly accused the ISIL. Suri had been critical of the group, blaming it for the internecine conflict among rebels that has killed thousands of people across northern Syria since it began in early January.

Suri’s death could further complicate efforts to resolve those clashes, which have undermined rebel efforts to oust President Bashar Assad in Syria’s nearly three-year civil war. Since the rebel infighting began, government forces have chipped away at opposition-held areas, including around Aleppo.

A native Syrian with longstanding ties to Al Qaeda, Suri was a co-founder of Ahrar Al Sham, a prominent, hardline rebel group in Syria that is part of a powerful alliance of seven groups known as the Islamic Front.

Akram Al Halabi, a spokesman for the Islamic Front, described Suri as “a big figure in global jihad”, and said he was appointed by Zawahiri last year to mediate a dispute between the two Al Qaeda affiliates in Syria: the Islamic State and the Nusra Front.

Speaking via Skype, Halabi said Suri had been critical of the ISIL and its antagonistic approach towards other rebel factions. He said rebels believe the ISIL, which Al Qaeda publicly disowned earlier this month, was behind Sunday’s bombing.

“The first fingers of blame point to the State,” Halabi said. “Unfortunately this is going to make the infighting worse.”

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said two others were also killed in the attack, which it attributed to the ISIL. The observatory obtains its information from a network of activists on the ground.

Suri had long been on the radar of Western intelligence agencies. In 2002, Spanish officials described Suri, whose real name is Mohamed Bahaiah, as the courier for the late terrorist leader Osama Bin Laden between Afghanistan and Europe.

Islamic extremists have emerged as a powerful force in Syria’s civil war. The rise to prominence of hard-line Islamic militants like Suri has sent jitters through Western capitals, and dampened enthusiasm for the anti-Assad opposition.