Senior al Qaeda militant reportedly killed in Syria

A senior leader of an al Qaeda-affiliated group fighting in Syria was killed in clashes with other rebel factions, the Associated Press reports.

{mosads}The senior militant, who went by Haji Bakr, was killed earlier this month in the town of Tal Rifaat in the northern province of Aleppo, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a group that tracks death in Syria.

A senior Iraqi intelligence official told the AP that Haji Bakr was assassinated as part of the dispute between the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and rival opposition groups.

More than 1,400 have been killed as al Qaeda-linked ISIL has been fighting other rebel groups for several weeks across opposition-controlled territory in northern Syria.

The clashes amidst rebel groups in Syria has complicated their fight against Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime, and raised concerns in the U.S. and elsewhere about sending military aid to opposition groups.