A Turkish warlord, who has been fighting alongside the Syrian regime for over seven years, was wounded on Saturday by an improvised explosive device in the coastal province of Lattakia, news feeds reported.
Miraj Oral, or Ali Kayali, has escaped death following the suspected Turkish assassination attempt, according to Bashar al-Assad’s media outlets.
The war criminal is the head of Popular Liberation Front of Liwa’a Iskandaroun (Sanjak of Alexandretta), a paramilitary group that operates near the Turkish border.
Oral was dubbed as the ‘Butcher of Baniyas’ due to the war crimes he committed in the Bayda and Baniyas massacres that occurred in May 2013 in the village of Bayda and the city of Baniyas, in Tartous province, where the regime army, backed by Oral’s militia and the National Defense Force (NDF), killed about 450 civilians.
Rebels and jihadists have killed more than 130,000 pro-regime fighters since the armed conflict erupted eight years ago with the brutal repression of protests against Assad, according to local monitoring groups.
The conflict in Syria has also killed more than 560,000 people and displaced 6.5 million.
This article was edited by The Syrian Observer. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
