Two suicide bombers killed a senior al-Qaida operative on Sunday, blowing themselves up inside the militant leader's compound in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, rebels and activists said.
Al-Suri had been critical of the group, blaming it for the internecine conflict among rebels that has killed thousands of people across northern Syria since it began in early January.
A native Syrian with longstanding ties to al-Qaida, al-Suri was a co-founder of Ahrar al-Sham, a prominent, hard-line rebel group in Syria that is part of a powerful alliance of seven groups known as the Islamic Front.
Akram al-Halabi, a spokesman for the Islamic Front, described al-Suri as "a big figure in global jihad," and said he was appointed by al-Zawahri last year to mediate a dispute between the two al-Qaida affiliates in Syria: the Islamic State and the Nusra Front.
Speaking via Skype, Al-Halabi said al-Suri had been critical of the Islamic State and its antagonistic approach toward other rebel factions. He said rebels believe the Islamic State, which al-Qaida publicly disowned earlier this month, was behind Sunday's bombing.
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