Al-Zarqawi relative killed in Syrian ambush

The brother-in-law of infamous al-Qaeda in Iraq [AQI] leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has been killed in Syria, aged 22. The relative, Mohammad Jarad, was killed in a checkpoint ambush by Syrian regime forces in the country’s southern As-Suwayda province on Thursday. Another fighter, Adam Abulmutasem also died. Al-Zarqawi’s brother-in-law, a mechanical engineer from al-Zarqa [20 kilometres east of Jordan’s capital, Amman], left his home to fight for Jabhat al-Nusra in Syria just two months ago. Abdul al-Tahawi, a senior Salafist in northern Jordan, said: “At least 22 out of 350 Jordanians who joined Jabhat al-Nusra have now been killed in Syria.” Jordanian-born Zarqawi was killed in a US air strike in Iraq in 2006. Jabhat al-Nusra has become a major fighting force in Syria, having recently captured the regime’s key Taftanaz air base and carried out suicide attacks on government targets across the war-ravaged country.