Syrian Rebels Did Not Know Iraqi Militant Killed was ISIS Head

When Syrian rebels attacked a hideout in mid-October in the southern Syrian village of Jassem, they had no idea that a militant commander who was killed in the operation was the leader of the Islamic State group. Syrian opposition activists and state media apparently did not know that the man killed was ISIS leader Abu al-Hassan al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi and identified him as Abu Abdul-Rahman al-Iraqi. The operation lasted two days and started on Oct. 14, the day after a bombing on a bus in a suburb of the capital Damascus. That attack killed 18 Syrian soldiers and wounded at least…