Special to WorldTribune.com

NICOSIA — An Al Qaida-aligned commander has been killed in the Sunni
revolt in Syria.

Lebanese security sources said Abdul Ghani Jawhar was killed in a bomb
blast in Syria on April 20 in Qusair near the Lebanese border.

They said Jawhar, commander of the Al Qaida-aligned Fatah Al Islam, was killed as he prepared a roadside bomb in a village near Homs.

“The bomb exploded prematurely and blew his body apart,” a security source said.

The sources said Jawhar was believed to have relocated from Lebanon to Syria in 2012 to help oust the regime of President Bashar Assad. They said Jawhar was killed with another Fatah Al Islam operative, identified as Walid Boustani.

The 30-year-old Jawhar, trained as a biochemist, was said to have joined Fatah Al Islam in Lebanon in 2010 and believed responsible for attacks on Lebanese security forces and United Nations peace-keepers in the south. He and Boustani were also linked to the Al Qaida-aligned war against the Lebanese Army in the Palestinian refugee camp of Naher Bared near the
northern city of Tripoli in 2007. Boustani was captured by Lebanese authorities and escaped from prison in 2010.

“Following their arrival in Syria they joined the armed uprising against
President Bashar Assad’s regime,” Lebanon’s Al Jadid television said in a
report on April 23.

Al Jadid said Boustani was killed by the Sunni rebel movement. The
television said he was accused of stealing funds from the rebel Free Syrian
Army.

Fatah Al Islam has confirmed the death of Jawhar, deemed a specialist in
the production of bombs. He had been reported dead several times over the
last decade.

The sources said Fatah Al Islam has sent fighters to help the Sunni
rebellion. They said Jawhar was believed to have trained Sunni rebels in
bomb production and attack techniques.

  Abdul Ghani Jawhar, Bashar Assad, Fatah Al Islam, Free Syrian Army, Lebanese Army, Pro-Al Qaida commander killed in Syria while setting roadside bomb, Sunni revolt