Many top Russian generals reportedly killed by opposition groups in Latakia

Dozens of senior Russian generals were reportedly killed in a car bomb attack perpetrated by Syrian opposition groups Ahrar al-Sham and the Bayan Movement in the eastern Syrian province of Latakia on Sunday.

Announcing the incident on Wednesday, the media office of Ahrar al-Sham claimed that the attack by the two factions was conducted with local insurgents on the Russian military base in the Snoubar Jabla neighborhood where they said they observed that senior Russian generals were holding a meeting there. In the statement the group said: "After weeks of hard intelligence work we were able to determine the location and time of the meeting and planted the car in the location. After the explosion several ambulances and Russian choppers rushed to the location and they were seen evacuating dead and wounded Russians to Latakia and Jableh hospitals."

The reason of the delay in announcing the attack was for security reasons until the opposition fighters returned to opposition-held areas, the armed group's statement said.

Russian officials, however, have not announced an official death toll as of yet.

The Russian military base that was attacked is regarded as one of the most important military centers of the staunch ally of Syria's Bashar Assad on the Syrian coast, located some 15 kilometers from Latakia, the regime's stronghold.

The group fights against Russian and Syrian regime forces together with the DAESH terrorist organization. Ahrar al-Sham was one of the first armed groups that emerged to try to topple the regime and has been one of the best organized. It was founded in Hama and Idlib in early 2011 by former Islamist political prisoners and Iraq war veterans held in the Sednaya Prison north of Damascus after their release from jail in early 2011. The founders have a Salafist understanding of Islam but, as opposed to DAESH, were at peace with the traditions of people and other groups like Sufis. The group has never been a part of the Western-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA), but has also not refused to ally with them. The group has never become a branch of al-Qaida and has said that their battle is limited to Syria.