 |
| The FSA's late Kamal Hamami, known by his nom de guerre Abu Baseer al-Ladkani |
The Free Syrian Army (FSA)
Supreme Military Council will meet shortly to discuss
the “treacherous assassination” of one of its 30 members by Islamist militants
linked to al-Qaeda.
The announcement was
made on air this afternoon by Louay al-Mekdad, the FSA’s political and media
coordinator.
In remarks to Alarabiya TV news channel, Mekdad
confirmed militants from the “Islamic State of Iraq and the
Levant,” a hardline Islamist group, killed Kamal Hamami in Latakia port city’s
rural area yesterday after luring him to a meeting to discuss battle plans.
Kamal Hamami -- better
known by his nom de guerre, Abu Baseer al-Ladkani – was
in charge of a key brigade within the FSA, namely the al-Izz bin Abdessalam
Brigade.
Mekdad said “mercenaries”
belonging to the “Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant did not suffice to assassinate
Abu Baseer only, but also attacked FSA fighters trying to retrieve his body and
detained some of them.”
Reuters later this afternoon quoted Mekdad saying Abu
Ayman al-Baghdadi, the Islamic State's Emir of the coastal region, personally
shot dead Hamami and his brother at the roadblock.
He said a fighter who was
travelling with them was set free to relay the message that the Islamic State
considers the FSA heretics and that the Supreme Command is now an al-Qaeda
target.
"If these people came
to defend the Syrian revolution and not help the Assad regime, then they have
to hand over the killers," Mekdad said, adding that the bodies of the two
men were still with the al-Qaeda affiliate.
While FSA units
sometimes fight alongside Islamist militant groups such as the “Islamic State
of Iraq and the Levant,” rivalries have increased and al-Qaeda-linked groups
have been blamed for several assassinations of commanders of moderate rebel
units.
The London-based Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the conflict, said the FSA and the
Islamic State have had violent exchanges in several areas of Syria over the
past few weeks, showing growing antagonism between President Bashar al-Assad’s
foes.
“Last Friday, the
Islamic State killed an FSA rebel in Idlib province and cut his head off. There
have been attacks in many provinces,” the Observatory’s leader Rami Abdurrahman
said.
Two of Hamami’s men were
wounded in yesterday’s attack, he said by telephone.
