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Top Rebel Leader Among Dead in Syria Blast


FILE - Members of Ahrar al-Sham brigade, one of the Syrian rebels groups, exercise in a train camp at unknown place in Syria, Nov. 29, 2013.
FILE - Members of Ahrar al-Sham brigade, one of the Syrian rebels groups, exercise in a train camp at unknown place in Syria, Nov. 29, 2013.

The head of a leading Syrian rebel group was killed Tuesday along with at least 12 other people.

The hardline Islamist group Ahrar al-Sham confirmed on social media that Hassan Aboud died in an explosion in the northwest province of Idlib. It is not clear who was responsible for the blast, as a fractured opposition in Syria continues to fight government troops around the country.

A human rights monitor said the bomb detonated as Aboud and dozens of senior commanders convened in a home.

According to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which tallies the death toll of Syria's civil war, at least 28 people were killed at the meeting.

Ahrar al-Sham has been in armed conflict with the Islamic State group that has taken over large areas of both Syria and Iraq.

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