Newly formed Syria militant group kills HTS commander in Idlib

A senior member of hardline Syrian Islamist militant group Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) was killed on Friday by a newly emergent group that set up its own checkpoint in the Idlib countryside.

The group, which calls itself the Revolutionary Shield Brigade, said it assassinated HTS commander Ibrahim Muhammad al-Ali - also known as Abu Suhaib Sarmad - in a video posted to social media earlier this week.

The militants posted pictures of the slain commander during his detention and after his killing.

In June, a video was released showing masked militants announcing the formation of the Revolutionary Shield Brigade.

The group demanded that HTS release detainees and threatened to target its members if their demands were not met. In another video released at the end of June, the group said it had shelled a HTS military base in Harza near the Syria-Turkey border.

The attacks on HTS comeas the hardline group, which dominates rebel-held areas of Syria, faces protests against its rule in Idlib and Aleppo provinces, amid a series of raids and arrests conducted by HTS aimed at quashing dissent.