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Late on Tuesday, an explosion killed 47 members of pragmatic Syrian rebel brigade Ahrar al-Sham, including most of its leadership, dealing a fresh blow to the nation’s armed opposition which could fragment its most important coalition.
The opposition rebels were killed when an explosion occurred during a meeting of its top military and religious chiefs, held in the north-eastern province of Idlib – the leader of the brigade, Hassan Abboud, also known as Abu Abdullah al-Hamawi, was among those killed in the strike. NO one has claimed the explosion, and Ahrar al-Sham has not blamed a single party for the strike so far. Instead, it quickly announced the names of its new leaders, with Hashem al-Sheikh, also known as Abu Jaber, its new chief and Abu Saleh Tahhan its new military chief.
Ahrar al-Sham, one of the largest and oldest of the Syrian armed opposition groups, was established in 2011 by rebels released early by Bashar Assad’s regime. It is a crucial part of the Islamic Front rebel coalition, which has battled both regime forces and extremists from the Islamic State (IS), expelling them from some parts of northern Syria.
According to some experts, the fate of the coalition now hangs in the balance.
Charles Lister, a visiting fellow at the Brooking Doha Center, said, “The most significant consequence is that the fate of the Islamic Front now looks desperate”.
The coalition may now splinter between moderate elements, which might drift towards the Western-backed rebel forces, and radical elements, which might join either the al-Nusra Front or the IS.
Ahrar al-Sham, said to comprise around 10,000 to 20,000 combatants, has always advocated a conservative rhetoric, openly seeking the creation of an Islamic government and working with the al-Nusra Front on several battles. However, the group has never supported the transnational radical ideology of the IS, and has been viewed by many as the bridge between radical and moderate rebels.
However, Lister added that the new leadership could shift the balance one way or the other.
“It would seem Ahrar al-Sham’s senior leadership has lost a balance it previously managed between moderates and hardliners, with the latter now more openly dominant”, he added.