The commander of terrorist group, Ahrar al-Sham, was killed on Sunday along with six other militants in a suicide attack by another terrorist group, Islamic State in Iraq and Levant (ISIL).

The commander of terrorist group, Ahrar al-Sham, was killed on Sunday along with six other militants in a suicide attack by another terrorist group, Islamic State in Iraq and Levant (ISIL).

Abu Khaled al-Souri, who fought alongside al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden and was close to its current chief, Ayman al-Zawahiri was killed on Sunday, Britian-based observatory “The Syrianb observatory for Human Rights” reported.

Souri’s death will fuel the infighting between extremist groups fighting the Syrian government.

Two militants told Reuters that five ISIL members had entered Ahrar al-Sham headquarters in Aleppo, engaged its fighters and then one ISIL militant blew himself up.

"Sheikh Abu Khaled was an important jihadi figure, he fought the Americans in Iraq and in Afghanistan." said a Syrian militant.

"He was a very important commander, he is a close friend of Sheikh Ayman [al-Zawahiri] and he knew Sheikh Bin Laden."

Souri was born in Aleppo in 1963. A senior source within Ahrar al-Sham said he had been based in Afghanistan but was sent by Zawahiri to Syria a few months ago on a mission to try to end the infighting.

Sources said that, by killing Souri, ISIL had taken the war between extremist factions to a new level, and that the decision to kill him must have been taken by the high command of ISIL, most probably its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who fell out last year with Zawahiri and the leader of the Syrian al-Qaeda group the al-Nusra Front.