Senior Hay’at Tahrir Al-Sham Commander Survives Russian Airstrike. His Bodyguard Killed

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Abu al-Fatah al-Farghli a senior commander of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) has survived a Russian airstrike that killed other personnel of the terrorist group, Syrian opposition sources revealed on July 26.

According to the sources, Abu al-Fatah and a group of his militants were at an unspecified frontline around Greater Idlib when they were targeted by a Russian warplane. The airstrike killed many militants, including Abu al-Fatah’s bodyguard known as Abu Obeida Abdul Baki.

Yahya Taher Farghli, known as Abu al-Fatah al-Farghli.

Abu al-Fatah, whose real name is Yahya Taher Farghli, was one of the prominent Egyptian radical scholars in the early 2000s. Egyptian authorities arrested Abu al-Fateh and other radicals in 2002 after accusing them of plotting a series of bombings in Cairo.

Following the 2011 Egyptian Revolution, Abu al-Fatah was released from jail. A year later, he moved to Syria, where he was appointed as the head of the “Advocacy and Guidance Authority” in the Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated Ahrar al-Sham Movement.

Abu al-Fatah and other Egyptian scholars left the Ahrar al-Sham Movement in December of 2016 for unknown reasons. In January of 2017, he was among the first scholars to join HTS, an alliance of terrorist groups that was established by al-Qaeda’s wing in Syria, the al-Nusra Front.

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Syrian and Russian forces have been hunting prominent terrorists in Greater Idlib for several months now with relative success. Last July, Prominent al-Qaeda Scholar Abdullah al-Muhaysini was injured in a Syrian airstrike that also killed his bodyguard.

More on this topic:

• U.S. Is Building New Large Base With Airstrip In Northwestern Syria

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