Special to WorldTribune.com

NICOSIA — A leading foreign fighter has been killed in the rebel war in Syria.

Rebel sources said Ibrahim Bin Chekroun was killed in the rebel offensive in the coastal Syrian province of Latakia.

The sources said Bin Chekroun led hundreds of Moroccan fighters under an organization called Islam Al Sham.

“The Moroccans were playing a significant role in the fighting in Latakia,” a source said.

Bin Chekroun, 35, was captured by the United States and served in its navy prison in Cuba until his return to Morocco in 2004. He was arrested a year later on charges of establishing an Al Qaida-aligned group called Tawhid W’al Jihad.

In 2011, Bin Chekroun was released from a Moroccan prison and headed for Syria where he joined an Islamist rebel group in Latakia. In August 2013, Bin Chekroun took over a Moroccan-dominated militia after the death of its founder Mohammed Suleimani.

Morocco has been deemed a leading contributor to the estimated 11,000 foreign fighters in Syria. The sources said Bin Chekroun recruited Moroccans and other foreigners through Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

The sources said Islam Al Sham sustained heavy losses in Latakia.
They said the militia lost its commander, identified as Ahmed Mazen,
believed to be an Egyptian with U.S. citizenship.

  Ibrahim Bin Chekroun, Islam Al Sham, Latakia, Leader of Moroccan Islamist fighters killed in Syria, Tawhid W’al Jihad