Special to WorldTribune.com

NICOSIA — The Syrian Army was said to have killed a leading Al
Qaida-aligned rebel chief.

Officials said the Army led operations against rebel militias in the
provinces of Aleppo and Dera. They said at least two senior commanders were
killed, including one from Al Qaida’s Islamic State of Iraq and Levant.

Opposition sources said the Syrian Army, supported by the Iranian-sponsored Hizbullah and Iraqi Shi’ite militias, were assaulting rebel strongholds around Aleppo and Damascus.

“Army units on Sunday launched large-scale operations in which they wholly eliminated terrorist groups, smashed their gatherings and dens and destroyed their weapons in several areas around the country,” Syria’s official Sana news agency said on Dec. 1.

The ISIL commander was identified as Abu Al Bara Al Maghrebi, a Moroccan
national. Al Maghrebi was said to have been killed in Khan Tuman outside
Aleppo, the largest city in Syria.

Officials said Al Maghrebi became commander of ISIL in 2013. They said
Al Maghrebi played a major role in Al Qaida militias that fought the regime of Col. Moammar Gadhafi in Libya in 2011.

ISIL has been identified as the most powerful militia in Syria. The
group, which controls large parts of northern Syria, has not confirmed
Syria’s claim that Al Maghrebi was killed.

The Assad regime also reported the death of a leading commander of the
Western-backed Free Syrian Army. The commander was identified as Fuaz
Qatlish, who led the FSA-aligned Saqr Qureish Battalions in Dera, near the
Syrian border with Jordan.

Britain’s Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the Syrian Air Force was dropping so-called barrel
bombs on rebel headquarters.

  Abu Al Bara Al Maghrebi, Aleppo, Commander of Al Qaida militia said killed in Syria, Fuaz Qatlish, Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, Khan Tuman