Syrian Terrorist Commander Killed in Bomb Attack in Southern Turkey
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – A commander from the so-called Free Syrian Army died in a bomb attack on his car in the southern Turkish province of Hatay Wednesday, a news agency and two insurgent sources said.
The militant leader was named by all sources as Jamil Raadoun, the commander of Sukour al-Ghab, one of several groups fighting under the FSA banner, the Daily Star reported Thursday citing also other agencies.
Raadoun had survived a similar attack in Turkey in April.
The Dogan news agency said Raadoun died after explosives were detonated on his vehicle.
Two Syrian militant sources confirmed the death. Residents said the blast outside Raadoun’s home in the southeastern town of Antakya, near the Syrian border, shook nearby apartment blocks.
Hatay province Governor Ercan Topaca said the attack might be linked to “a dispute between Syrian opposition groups,” state-run Anadolu news agency reported.
Raadoun, who defected from the Syrian army early on in the 4-year-old civil war, had been in Turkey for about a year, Topaca said.
Osama Abu Zayd, a spokesman for the FSA, said Raadoun’s brigade has fought against both ISIL militants in the northern province of Aleppo, and against Syrian army forces in central Idlib and Hama provinces.
“It is one of the brigades which the West classifies as moderate, but did not get training,” Abu Zayd said, although he added that it had received military support from countries which oppose President Bashar Assad, including anti-tank missiles.
Turkey and the United States are working on plans for joint airstrikes in northern Syria in support of FSA terrorists. A first group of rebels trained in Turkey by US instructors has already deployed to Syria, but some of them were kidnapped within weeks by the Al-Qaeda affiliated Nusra Front.
Diplomatic sources told Reuters last Friday that a second group of rebel fighters trained in Turkey could be deployed to Syria within weeks.