DAMASCUS: A plan to evacuate thousands of fighters and civilians from three besieged districts of Syria’s capital was on hold on Saturday, a day after an air strike killed a rebel leader.

Zahran Alloush, 44, was the commander of the Jaish al Islam, the predominant opposition faction in the Eastern Ghouta rebel bastion.

A senior member of the militant group said aeroplanes had attacked a “secret meeting” of commanders, and confirmed that Alloush was among those killed.

His death, in a raid claimed by President Bashar al Assad’s regime, was seen as dealing a heavy blow to the nearly five-year uprising and also complicating a fragile peace process.

It also halted the planned evacuation of some 4,000 people, half of them militants, from the southern districts of Damascus.

A government official had said the plan would see the evacuees transferred on Saturday out of Qadam, Hajar al Aswad and the besieged Palestinian camp of Yarmuk and into northern Syria.

Those to be moved were expected to include members of the militant Islamic State (IS) group and Al Qaeda-affiliated Al Nusra Front.

But a security source close to the negotiations said the plan was now on hold.

“Jaish al Islam was supposed to provide safe passage through areas east of Damascus for the buses heading to Raqa,” IS’s Syria bastion, the source said.

“About 1,200 people were supposed to leave today, but the death of Zahran Alloush means we are back to square one,” he said.

He said buses standing by to transfer the evacuees had left empty and “the plan was on hold until Jaish al Islam reorganises itself”.

Another source said there was a delay in implementing the deal but that it was “still in place”.

Alloush was a leading figure in the rebel movement in Damascus province, and was holding a senior-level meeting in Eastern Ghouta when he was killed.

A Syrian security source told AFP that “dozens” of rebels died in two rounds of air strikes by Syria’s air force with newly provided Russian missiles.

At least 12 Jaish al Islam members and seven from the Ahrar al Sham group were killed.

Hours afterwards, leading members of Jaish al Islam elected Abu Hammam al Buwaydani as a replacement, according to the reports.

Mr Buwaydani is a 40-year-old businessman and fighter from Douma in Eastern Ghouta who reportedly hails from a family with strong ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.

Elsewhere, a coalition of Kurdish and Arab groups said it seized the key Tishreen Dam from the IS on the Euphrates River, as well as seven villages on its eastern bank, in Aleppo province.

Syrian Democratic Forces spokesman Talal Sello said dozens of IS fighters had been killed.

The SDF can now cross into IS-controlled territory along the river’s western bank, bringing it less than 30 kilometres from Manbij, an IS stronghold.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights’ chief Rami Abdel Rahman said the SDF had crossed the dam, and “battles are now on the western bank of the river”.

Published in Dawn, December 27th, 2015