Guardian, 11 Jan 2013 – There are fears that the killing this week of a leading Syrian rebel commander, apparently by members of a rival rebel group, could spark a power struggle that could further hamper opposition efforts to oust President Bashar al-Assad, Reuters has reported.
The agency quoted rebel sources as saying Thaer al-Waqqas, northern commander of one of Syria’s main rebel groups, the al-Farouq Brigades, was shot dead in Sermin, close to the Turkish border, on Wednesday.
The sources said the killing appeared to be a revenge attack for the death last October of Firas al-Absi, a senior jihadist commander in the al-Qaida-linked al-Nusra Front. Al-Waqqas had been linked to Absi’s killing, although al-Farouq officials have since denied any involvement.
Syria’s state news agency Sana confirmed al-Waqqas’s death, saying he was killed
during clashes between two terrorist groups over distributing the money and loot they had stolen from the public and private properties.
The rebel source told Reuters that further clashes between the al-Farouq Brigades, an opposition group containing large numbers of defectors from the Syrian regular army and security apparatus, and foreign-backed, more civilian jihadist groups like al-Nusra and its allies the Sham Hawks Brigade and Muhajireen al-Sham, now seemed “only a matter of time”.
Facing chronic supply problems and a lack of money and heavy weapons, the military effectiveness of Syria’s hundreds of rebel groups – which have besieged some targets for months without success – are being hampered militarily by internal tensions and feuds, some sources stressed.