Palestinian militant group: commander assassinated in Syria

By ALBERT AJI
Associated Press

DAMASCUS (AP) — The Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad says one of its commanders has been killed in Syria in what it described as an assassination by Israeli agents. Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Jihad group, says that Ali Ramzi al-Aswad, 31, was killed Sunday morning in the Damascus countryside in a “cowardly assassination with bullets bearing the fingerprints of the Zionist enemy,” referring to Israel. There was no immediate statement from Israel on the alleged assassination. Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes on targets inside government-controlled parts of Syria in recent years, including attacks on the Damascus and Aleppo airports, but it rarely acknowledges or discusses the operations.