Abu Salman al-Belarusi, leader and founder of Jihadi mercenary group Malhama Tactical, was reportedly killed in a Syrian airstrike.
Several Jihadi sources claimed on August 15 that the Uzbeki jihadist was killed, when a Syrian warplane targeted his position in the southern Idlib countryside. The mercenary group has not commented on these reports, so far.
Abu Salman al-Belarusi, previously known as Abu Rofiq
Malhama Tactical, which is regarded as the “Islamic Blackwater,” has been involved in the training of several terrorist groups in Greater Idlib since its foundation in 2015. The group’s mercenaries are also known to participate in attacks on the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and Russian forces from time to time.
Last month, a Russian airstrike wiped out a headquarters of Malhama Tactical in Greater Idlib. However, no one was reportedly killed.
The news of Abu Salman death were met with much skepticism from pro-government and opposition activists, as the Jihadists, formerly known as Abu Rofiq, had faked his death before.
In February of 2017, Malhama Tactical claimed that Abu Rofiq was killed in Russian airstrike on his apartment in Idlib’s city center. However, later the Jihadist acknowledged that he faked his death to escape the Russian intelligence, which has been hunting him since 2015.
“They [the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB)] are always hunting us. We have to be constantly on our guard,” Abu Rofiq told Europe Eye on Radicalization in an interview published on February 21 of 2019.
