Senior FSA commander killed in Daraa battle for Tafas

A MILITARY FAREWELL: A battalion of the Free Syrian Army-affiliated Fallujah Houran Brigade held a funeral for General Mohammed Yasser Aboud on Monday in Daraa province. The Brigade’s operations commander in southern Syria was killed in the ongoing battle for the city of Tafas in western Daraa.

The well-known lieutenant colonel planned the Free Syrian Army’s successful operations in Daraa, most recently the takeover of the regime’s al-Mesayfra battalion in addition to the capture of the old customs building in Daraa near the Syrian border with Jordan.

Aboud “was martyred after the southern operations center was targeted by several rockets,” Abu Khaled Hilal, director of the pro-revolution Daraa Province Media Office, told Syria Direct on Tuesday. The battle in Tafas between the FSA and the regime is considered critical to “gain control of a number of positions, including that of Brigade 61, which is one of the regime Army’s largest brigades,” said Hilal, who manages a team of citizen journalists across Daraa. “This battle is called ‘Unifying the Ranks’ because Lieutenant Colonel Yasser was attempting to unify the military battalions” in Daraa, said Hilal.

The colonel defected from the Syrian Armed Forces and joined the Free Syrian Army in February 2012. He became the general of the Military Council of Daraa Governorate, a position now occupied by General Ahmed al-Noame, and subsequently general of the Operations Room of the Free Syrian Army in Daraa.

Hezbollah television channel Al-Manar reported Tuesday that the Syrian army’s operation in Daraa successfully killed “the fugitive” Yasser al-Aboud as well as a leader from Jabhat al-Nusra. “The operation resulted in the elimination of a number of leaders of armed groups, including Maher Qatifan, the leader of Jabhat al-Nusra in the town of Abtaa,” Al Manar reported.