The leader of the militant group Abu Mohammed al-Jawlani, who stormed the Syrian city of Aleppo yesterday, has been killed in a Russian airstrike, according to unconfirmed reports in Arab media.
Earlier, the Russian Defense Ministry said its air force had carried out strikes on Syrian rebels in support of the country’s military, Russian news agencies reported.
Ahmed Hussein al-Shar’a, known by his nom de guerre Abu Mohammad al-Jawlani (or Golani, indicating he was born in the Golan Heights), is wanted by the United States as a specially designated global terrorist, with a $10 million bounty on his head.
His group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham or HTS, formerly known as the Nusra Front, is designated a terrorist group by the United States, Russia, Turkey and other countries. Syrian President Bashar Assad is a close ally of Moscow.
Abu Mohammed al-Jawlani, the leader of Jabhat al-Nusra, broke with al-Qaeda in 2016, dissolved Jabhat al-Nusra, and founded a new group called Hayat Tahrir al-Sham. The newly formed group merged with several similar groups a year later.
Syrian rebels, supported by Turkey, suddenly launched a military offensive and managed to capture Aleppo, Syria’s second largest city, in just a few days, Klix.ba writes.
