18 US-backed rebels killed in Syria car bomb

Opposition activists say a car bomb in southern Syria has killed at least 18 rebels including the commander of a US-backed armed opposition group.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the car bomb exploded Wednesday afternoon in the southern village of Asheh, in Quneitra province, killing at least 18 fighters.

A Quneitra-based opposition activist who goes by the name of Abu Omar al-Golani says that 20 fighters were killed in the blast, including the commander of the Syria Revolutionaries Front, Capt. Abu Hamza al-Naimi.

He says the blast went off when several commanders were meeting at the group’s office in Asheh.

The Syria Revolutionaries Front is a moderate rebel group that was largely crushed in northern Syria in late 2014 by al-Qaida’s Syrian branch, known as the Nusra Front.

— AP