Nusra Leader denies Assad television reports claiming his death

The leader of Syria's jihadist al-Nusra Front is in good health, said a statement released by the group on Saturday, denying state television reports claiming his death.

“What was claimed by one channel alone, regarding what it claimed was the killing of the emir of al-Nusra Front, was a lie,” said the group according to AFP.

The Syrian state television reported on Friday that Abu Mohammed al-Jolani had been killed in coastal Latakia province.

But state news agency SANA quickly withdrew an alert saying the same thing.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which closely monitors the fighting in Syria, said senior Nusra Front leaders contacted by activists in Latakia and the eastern Deir el-Zour province denied al-Golani had been killed.

The al-Nusra Front, a jihadist group affiliated with al-Qaeda, is one of the more powerful rebel groups battling to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad.

Al-Nusra was designated a “terrorist” organization by the United States late last year.

Other Nusra Front sources said yesterday they could not confirm or deny the Assad media report “because contact with al-Golani was cut,” the Observatory said in a statement. A rebel commander in a Damascus suburb contacted by The Associated Press said he believed al-Golani was “alive and well” based on his contacts with other fighters including those from Nusra Front. He declined to elaborate or be identified for security concerns.

The report comes as the fragmented rebels have suffered significant losses on the battlefield, according to Associated Press. Syrian troops killed at least 40 opposition fighters, including Nusra Front members, earlier Friday in an ambush near Damascus, the government said.

The assassination of al-Nusra front’s leader, if happened, is unlikely, however to deal a major blow the ragtag armed opposition groups, said Michael Ryan, a scholar from the Washington DC-based Middle East Institute.

Earlier this year, the United States declared Golani to be a global terrorist, claiming al-Qaeda had tasked him with installing Islamic Sharia law across Syria and had also ordered numerous suicide bombings.

Al-Nusra was designated a terrorist organization by the United States last year.

(AFP, Al Arabiya)