Update: Syria's Islam Army leader killed by Russian airstrikes east of Damascus

Zahran Alloush, the leader of the so-called Islam Army, has been killed along with a number of his comrades when strikes targeted his meeting east of the capital Damascus, pan-Arab al-Mayadeen and activists reported on Friday.

Zahran Alloush, who was born in 1971, was an active Syrian rebel leader during the Syrian nearly five-year-old conflict.

The man was the commander of Jaysh al-Islam, Arabic for Islam Army, a Saudi-backed militant group located in several Syrian areas, mainly in the Eastern Ghouta Countryside of the capital Damascus.

The Islam Army was the main rebel group responsible for the daily mortar attacks against civilian areas inside Damascus.

The TV said Alloush was killed when a Russian airstrike targeted a meeting place in a farmland in the al-Marj area in Eastern Ghouta, adding that the meeting he was attending was aiming to establish reconciliation between two rival rebel groups in Eastern Ghouta.

It said one out of 13 Russian airstrikes against al-Marj area targeted Alloush's meeting, adding that his body is still under the rubble.

Meanwhile, the official Syrian media confirmed the killing of Alloush, saying strikes led to his killing along with 90 of his rebels.

It added that targeting Alloush was implemented after his circle was breached by members loyal to the Syrian government, who gave the coordinates to the authorities before the warplanes struck him.

Alloush, who is from the rebel bastion of Douma in Ghouta, is married to three women. He is the son of Sheikh Abdullah Alloush, a Salafist preacher from Damascus who lives in Saudi Arabia.

The 45-year-old commander, who had attended the law school at Damascus University and obtained a Master Degree in Islamic Law from Saudi Arabia, was arrested by the Syrian Intelligence in 2009 on charges of weapons possession. He was released in 2011 as part of a general amnesty three months into the Syrian conflict.

Following his release, he established a rebel group and rapidly expanded it till it became what is now known as the Islam Army, the most powerful rebel group operating in the Damascus area, with its central leadership in Douma.

Fears have now sparked among the Damascenes about possible retaliation from the Islam Army for the killing of their leader, amid expectations that fresh and intensified mortar attack could be triggered against Damascus after Alloush's death.

Hasan al-Hasan, a Syrian military expert, told Xinhua that Alloush is deemed as the first man of Saudi Arabia in Syria, as his group is known of being supported by Saudi Arabia.

He said the group will now need time before re-operating as it has become "without a head." Endit