A GOALKEEPER who became an icon of the rebellion against Syrian president Bashar Assad has died of wounds suffered in a battle with government forces, a rebel spokesman said.
Abdelbaset Sarout, 27, rose to fame as a player for his home city of Homs.
He then joined peaceful protests against Assad in 2011 and was known as the “singer of the revolution”.
He later took up arms as the country slid into civil war.
Four of his brothers and his father were killed in the war.
Captain Mustafa Maarati, spokesman for the Jaysh al-Izza rebel group, said yesterday that Sarout died from wounds sustained two days earlier while fighting in the northern Hama province.
Fighting has escalated in north-western Syria, the last major rebel stronghold, since April.
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