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Key Syrian rebel leader interviewed by Trudy Rubin nearly killed

On Friday, I interviewed. Col. Abdul-Jabbar Akidi, the top rebel commander in the Aleppo area, is trying to unify the various rebel forces in northern Syria. We inside Syria, just across the border from Turkey, and one of his aides, named Ahmed, drove us from the border crossing to a guest house.

Today I learned that Akidi was nearly killed yesterday when Syrian planes and a helicopter attacked his headquarters in an Aleppo suburb, Tel Rifaat, and Ahmed's car was demolished.

Akidi had invited me to visit him in Tel Rifaat this weekend, and I was eager to go, especially because I had also met several men who are part of a local revolutionary council trying to organize services for the suburb's 25,000 people.  I hesitated because Tel Rifaat, which is free of Syrian regime troops but is vulnerable to regime planes, has been attacked regularly.

I have been told (haven't yet confirmed this) that when Akidi's headquarters was hit, a journalist from the British newspaper, The Guardian, was inside interviewing him. Fortunately, both of them survived.  Can't help thinking I could have been inside, too.