Bombing kills co-founder of Syria’s main al-Qaida-linked group, once known as Nusra Front

By KAREEM CHEHAYEB and GHAITH AL-SAYED
Associated Press

IDLIB, Syria (AP) — A war monitor says a suicide bomber killed the co-founder of Syria’s main al-Qaida-linked group that controls much of the country’s northwest. However, some activists disputed the source of the explosion, saying instead that a remotely detonated bomb killed Abu Maria al-Qahtani, whose real name was Maysara al-Jubouri. Al-Qahtani co-founded the Nusra Front in Syria, a militant group that later renamed itself Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and claimed it had severed ties with al-Qaida. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the bomber, wearing an explosives vest, entered al-Qahtani’s guesthouse on Thursday in the town of Sarmada in Idlib province and detonated it.