ISIL captured al-Wawi, who is also the commander of the terrorist group al-Ababil Brigade, and his companions after they entered the Syrian soil from the Turkish border three days ago and executed them on Saturday, Fars news agency reported.

The news comes following a Wednesday report by the Wall Street Journal that quoted American officials as saying that Salim Idris, the top commander of the FSA, was forced to flee Syria after the Islamic Front militants took over his headquarters.

According to US officials, Idris flew to Qatar’s capital of Doha on November 8 after fleeing to Turkey.

The Takfiri militants also seized key warehouses, in the town of Atmeh, near the Turkish border, that contained a range of lethal and nonlethal equipment. They were controlled by the FSA’s Supreme Military Council, US officials said.

The so-called Islamic Front also reportedly took control of the Bab al-Hawa border crossing with Turkey.

Last week, the so-called Islamic Front announced that it does not accept the authority of the FSA.

The foreign-backed FSA was the first militant group that emerged in Syria in 2011. Many other groups have been created since then and many of them operate with a high degree of autonomy from the FSA.

Syria has been gripped by deadly unrest since March 2011.

The Foreign Policy magazine reported on Tuesday that more than 5,000 foreign militants are fighting against the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, adding that the figure is “higher than any previous conflict in the modern history of the Muslim world.”

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