Al Qaida group commander killed in airstrike

Al Qaida’s Syrian affiliate is confirming that its top field commander has been killed in an air strike.

A spokesman for the Nusra Front was quoted on a prominent militant website today as saying the group’s “military commander” Abu Hommam al-Shami was killed a day earlier when an air strike targeted a meeting in the western Syrian province of Idlib.

Syria’s state news agency and Syrian activists abroad first reported the death yesterday.

The website says three other people – two of them bodyguards for al-Shami - also died.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that several prominent Nusra leaders were killed.

It remained unclear who conducted the air strike.

Syria’s Sana news agency claimed it was Syrian army while activists and Nusra said it was the US-led coalition.