French militant killed in clashes in Syria's Idlib

A French militant has been reported killed while in combat against Syrian regime forces in northwestern Syria, according to his armed faction.

The armed militant used the pseudonym Abu Hamza, but his real name could not be verified. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based war monitor, Hamza was killed on Sunday during combat with Syrian regime forces and was buried on Monday in the Jabal al-Zawiya area.

Firqatul Ghuraba, a group of foreign fighters in Syria's last main rebel-held region of Idlib, announced: "the martyrdom of one of its heroes... from the French Muhajirin, our brother Abu Hamza".

The group is led by Omar Omsen, also known as Omar Diaby, a French national of Senegalese descent suspected of funnelling francophone fighters to Syria. He is wanted on a French arrest warrant.

In a statement on WhatsApp, the group said Hamza died in the Jabal al-Zawiya area of Idlib. 

Along with the statement, the group published photos of men carrying what appeared to be a body which they put into the earth.

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Thousands of foreign fighters 

The French fighters are mostly fighting alongside Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, Al-Qaeda's former Syrian affiliate which, with other groups, controls parts of Idlib.

Over the past decade, thousands of armed men from Europe travelled to Syria to fight alongside rebel groups, but with Russian and Iranian support Damascus has clawed back much of the territory it lost earlier in the conflict.

The war in Syria erupted in 2011 when the regime brutally repressed pro-democracy protests.

Since then nearly half a million people have been killed.

Almost half of Syria's pre-war population of around 21 million have been displaced within the country or abroad.

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