Senior Syrian rebel commander killed by gunmen in Homs

A senior commander in the Syrian rebel group Ahrar al-Sham has been killed in the Homs countryside on Tuesday according to local activists.

"Unidentified gunmen opened fire on Abu Rateb al-Homsi, a member of Ahrar al-Sham's Shura Council and the group's Emir in Homs on Tuesday evening," activists told The New Arab.

Al-Homsi was shot while in the village of Farhaniyah, north of Homs, and was rushed to a local hospital where he died of his injuries.

Ahrar al-Sham is a powerful Saudi-backed ultraconservative opposition faction that operates mainly in northern Syria.

In December, the group pulled out of a Syrian opposition conference in Riyadh because the conference failed because to "confirm the Muslim identity" of the Syrian people, according to a statement by the group.

Ahrar al-Sham has been on the frontline of the most brutal battles with the Syrian regime during the past four years. Now it is the prime target of Russian air raids.

The killing of al-Homsi comes a few weeks after the death of Jaysh al-Islam leader, Zahran Alloush, in a Russian airstrike.

Jaysh al-Islam, another Saudi-backed ultraconservative rebel factions is the one of the most powerful insurgent groups in the rebel-held suburbs of Damascus.

Syrian opposition groups are scheduled to hold direct talks with representatives of Bashar al-Assad's regime this month as part of the Geneva plan for a political resolution of the Syrian crisis.

More than 250,000 people have died since Syria's conflict erupted in March 2011, and millions more have fled their homes.