Special to WorldTribune.com

NICOSIA — A leading rebel commander has been killed in the Al Qaida war in Syria.

Abu Mohammed Al Ansari was killed in the northern Syrian province of Idlib on April 16 in the latest attack by the rival Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

Al Ansari, a commander for Al Qaida’s Nusra Front for the Defense of the Levant, was assassinated in a raid on his home near the Turkish border.

“Four ISIL fighters entered the house and killed Abu Mohammed Al Ansari, his wife, daughter, brother and his daughter,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Syrian Observatory said a Nusra squad responded to the attack and killed one assassin. Another ISIL fighter blew himself up to avoid capture.

Al Ansari was the latest Nusra commander killed in the war with ISIL, which began in January 2014. Opposition sources said about 4,000 Al Qaida fighters and Syrians rebels were killed in the war, which also led to the expulsion of the Western-backed Free Syrian Army from northern Syria.

The sources said ISIL has been attacking Nusra and its allies along the
Syrian border with Iraq and Turkey. They said ISIL was trying to establish a
corridor from the northern city of Aleppo through the Iraqi capital of
Baghdad.

  Abu Mohammed Al Ansari, Al Qaida bloodbath in Syria terminates Nusara Front commander, brother and two assassins, daughter, ISIL, Nusra Front, Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, wife