Kamal Hamami was a member of the Supreme Military Council of the Free Syrian Army. The latter views the assassination as a "declaration of war" and now wants to "wipe out" the Islamists. Incident confirms the deepening division within rebel ranks. Welcomed at the start of the revolt, Islamists are now despised by most Syrians who oppose the Islamic courts, extrajudicial killings and abductions in the areas under their control.

Beirut (AsiaNews) - The assassination in Latakia, north-western Syria, of a top commander in the Free Syrian Army, a rebel force backed by the West and most Arab nations, by militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, an organisation linked to al Qaeda, is tantamount to a "declaration of war", FSA rebels said on Friday. The incident now could open a new front in Syria's civil war between Western-backed forces and Islamists.

Kamal Hamami, a member of the FSA Supreme Military Council, had gone to meet with men of the Islamic State to discuss common strategy against President Bashar al-Assad's forces, but was murdered instead, said Qassem Saadeddine, a Free Syrian Army spokesman.

"The Islamic State phoned me saying that they killed Abu Bassel (Hamami's nom de guerre) and that they will kill all of the Supreme Military Council," Saadeddine explained.

The incident is the latest sign of disarray in the armed opposition to Assad's regime, divided between FSA moderates and extremists associated with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and the Nusra Front.

Initially, extremists were welcomed because of the common fight against Assad, but are now despised by a majority of the population opposed to their Islamic courts, extrajudicial executions and kidnappings in the areas under their control.

"We are going to wipe the floor with them. We will not let them get away with it because they want to target us," a senior FSA commander said on condition of anonymity.

The anti-government Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the conflict, said the FSA and the Islamic State have had violent exchanges in several areas of Syria over the past few weeks. In one of the latest incidents last Friday, the Islamic State killed an FSA rebel in Idlib province and cut his head off.

The rivalries among rebel forces is helping Assad who, thanks to the intervention by Lebanon's Hizbollah, has been able to mount counter attacks in various parts of the country.

At the same time though, they have pushed moderate rebels to ask the West, especially the US, for modern weapons.

• syria
• civil
• war
• salafists
• moderates