10 Facts About Zahran Alloush

Zahran Alloush was a Syrian Islamist rebel leader who was the commander of Jaysh al-Islam, a major component of the Islamic Front, of which he was the military chief, and was described as one of the most powerful leaders in rebel-held Syria.

Zahran Alloush was killed in a joint Russian and Syrian airstrike on 25 December 2015 and was succeeded by Essam al-Buwaydhani as head of Jaysh al-Islam.

Zahran Alloush was born in Douma, Rif Dimashq, in 1971, and was married to three women.

Zahran Alloush's father was Abdullah Alloush, a scholar and the previous director of Al Assad center for Quran studies in Damascus.

Zahran Alloush joined the faculty of law at Damascus University, and completed a master's degree in Shariah at the Islamic University of Madinah.

Zahran Alloush was released from Sednaya Prison in 2011 as part of a general amnesty three months into the Syrian Uprising.

Zahran Alloush has denounced democracy and called for an Islamic state to succeed Assad; however, in a May 2015 interview with McClatchy journalists, his spokesperson used moderate rhetoric, claiming that Syrians should decide what sort of state they wanted to live under and that Alawites were "part of the Syrian people" and only those with blood on their hands should be held accountable.

Zahran Alloush's spokesman went on to say that the sectarian and Islamist rhetoric Alloush had previously made was only intended for internal consumption and to rally his fighters.

Zahran Alloush was reported killed, along with other senior members of his faction in the village of Utaya, east of Damascus, on 25 December 2015, in an airstrike on a meeting with rival rebel commanders from Ahrar al-Sham.

Zahran Alloush's targeting was linked by Western media to his participation in forthcoming peace talks between the government and opposition.