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Members of an assassination cell, which has killed several forgiven fighters and commanders of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), has confessed that they received support and orders from the Ahrar al-Sham Movement and the Nour al-Din al-Zenki Movement, the HTS-linked news agency Iba’a reported on February 25.
One of the assassination cell’s members revealed that the Nour al-Din al-Zenki Movement had formed special cells to assassinate HTS fighters and said that he had personally received orders from a commander of the Ahrar al-Sham Movement to assassinate fighters of HTS.
The assassination cell, which is known as “Tajmae Nasrat al-Mazlum”, has claimed responsibility for several assassinations in northern Syria over the last few years. However, Syrian oppositions sources used to claim that the cell had been linked to the intelligence services of Syria, Russia, Turkey or even the US.
In a related development, pro-HTS activists reported that HTS had begun massing its forces in several areas of Idlib governorate in order to launch an attack against the Syria’s Liberation Front (SLF) – an alliance of Ahrar al-Sham and Nour al-Din al-Zenki.
An unnamed religious scholar of HTS said that the armed group is massing its forces in a video released by Iba’a and warned the fighters of the SLF that they will face a “strong response” if they continue attacking HTS.
So far, HTS and the SLF have not accepted any initiative to end the ongoing armed conflict between them. Many Syrian pro-opposition news outlet to describe the conflict between the two armed groups as “a war of abolition”.
