Top rebel commander killed in blast in Syria's Idlib

A suicide bombing ripped through the position of a jihadi group in Syria's northwestern province of Idlib on Saturday, killing a top commander and three other fighters, a monitor group reported.

The suicide bomber blew himself up in the town of Binnish in Idlib countryside, killing Majed Hussain Sadeq, a breakaway Syrian officer who became the chief of staff of the Ahrar al-Sham al-Islamiyeh Movement, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The UK-based watchdog group said the bomber rode a motorcycle and parked near the headquarters of the group, before walking toward a gathering of the Ahrar al-Sham fighters, where he set off the bomb.

The death toll is likely to rise due to the number of critically wounded fighters.

Meanwhile, reports emerging from other activists accused the Islamic State (IS) of the bombing, as the slain commander was heading a unit to arrest the IS members in Idlib and the northern province of Aleppo.

They said the IS had previously carried out several assassinations against members of the Ahrar al-Sham movement.

Ahrar al-Sham, a Salafist rebel movement close to Turkey, is a coalition of multiple Islamist and Salafist units that coalesced into a single brigade in order to fight against President Bashar al-Assad.

The group has also been fighting against the IS in several areas.

Source: XINHUA