NGO: Clashes between Kurds, jihadists kill 29 in Syria.

NGO: Clashes between Kurds, jihadists kill 29 in Syria.

Al-Nusra Front member holds the jihdist group’s flag in
 Raqqa province, eastern Syria. (File photo: Reuters)

Beirut |AFP |18  Jul 2013 :: At least 29 people have been killed in fighting between Kurdish and jihadist fighters in northern Syria in the past two days, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Thursday.

“At least 19 Al-Nusra Front (jihadist) fighters and 10 Kurds have been killed since the day before yesterday in clashes in the oil region of Hassakeh,” the NGO said.

On Wednesday, the group said Syrian Kurdish fighters had pushed members of Al-Nusra and the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant out of the town of Ras al-Ain and its nearby border crossing with Turkey.

The clashes between Kurdish fighters and jihadists erupted after Al-Nusra Front militants attacked a convoy of Kurdish women fighters, Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said.

Activists in Ras al-Ain said members of the jihadist groups had taken advantage of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, which began last week, to try to impose their extreme version of Islam.

In the early days of the Syria conflict, when the opposition was desperate for help from any quarter, jihadist fighters were welcomed but a spate of abuses has fuelled a major backlash.

The Observatory said that jihadist fighters began firing rockets at Ras al-Ain, in western Hassakeh, after their expulsion.

They also attacked several roadblocks manned by Kurdish fighters and clashes were ongoing in the village of Tall Alu and Karhok in eastern Hassakeh, the group added.

Kurdish fighters meanwhile advanced elsewhere in the northeastern province, taking control of part of the Sweidiya area of Hassakeh, which is the only majority Kurdish province in Syria.

Syria’s Kurdish minority have walked a sometimes ambiguous line in the country’s conflict, which is now in its third year.

Despite occasionally cooperating with rebel fighters, the country’s Kurds have largely chosen to remain outside the conflict, and have sought to keep both regime troops and rebels out of their areas.

Their position has earned them the ire of some rebels, who fault them for failing to back the uprising.

And the community’s more liberal interpretation of Islam has also made it a target for some extremist rebel groups, including Al-Nusra and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.(Courtesy:AL Arabia)

Jihadists expelled from flashpoint Kurdish Syrian town, NGO says.

Jihadists expelled from flashpoint Kurdish Syrian town, NGO says.

Kurdish fighters have taken near-total control of the town of Ras al-Ain
 (pictured), near the Turkish border, on July 17, 2013. (File photo: AFP)

Beirut | AFP | 17 Jul 2013 :: Kurdish fighters have expelled Jihadists from the Syrian flashpoint frontier town of Ras al-Ain near Turkey, a watchdog said Wednesday, adding that only the border crossing remains under the extremists’ control.

Kurdish fighters “have taken near-total control of Ras al-Ain after fierce battles raged since [Tuesday] evening, pitting [Kurds] against al-Nusra Front, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria and other groups,” said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Ras al-Ain is home to a majority Kurdish population and is of strategic importance given its location close to Turkey.

Its fighters are trying to ensure neither the regime of President Bashar al-Assad nor the opposition takes control of its areas.
The clashes between Kurdish fighters and Jihadists broke out after al-Nusra Front attacked a convoy of Kurdish women fighters, according to Observatory Director Rami Abdel Rahman.

Nine Jihadists and two Kurdish fighters have been killed since battles erupted in Ras al-Ain Tuesday, said the Observatory.

Activists in Ras al-Ain said members of the Jihadist groups had taken advantage of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, which began last week, to try to impose their extreme version of Islam.

In the early days of the Syrian conflict, when opponents of the Assad regime were desperate for assistance from any quarter, jihadist fighters were welcomed but a spate of abuses has fuelled a major backlash.(Courtesy:Al Arabia)

Free Syrian Army Killing Exposes Rebel Rifts.

Free Syrian Army Killing Exposes Rebel Rifts.

Jihadists and moderates in the opposition are increasingly turning on each other threatening a conflict within the rebel movement.

The Free Syrian Army has threatened retaliation over the killing

UK  13 Jul 2013 :: The assassination of a senior Free Syrian Army (FSA) commander by militants linked to al Qaeda is tantamount to a declaration of war, FSA rebels have said.

Kamal Hamami - better known as Abu Bassir al Jeblawi - of the FSA Supreme Military Council was killed by members of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, a hardline Islamist group, on Thursday.

A senior FSA commander said the al Qaeda-linked militants had previously warned FSA rebels that there was "no place" for them in the northern Latakia province, where Hamami was killed.

He added that there would be retaliation for the killing.

"We are going to wipe the floor with them. We will not let them get away with it because they want to target us," he said on condition of anonymity

The statement is the latest sign of disarray in the armed opposition to Syrian President Bashar al Assad, who has regained the upper hand more than two years into an insurgency that grew out of Arab Spring-inspired pro-democracy protests.

Opposition sources said the killing of Mr Hamami followed a dispute over control of a strategic checkpoint in Latakia.

"FSA rebels fired into the air, and subsequently, an ISIS fighter shot Abu Bassir dead and wounded two other fighters from his battalion," the opposition Syrian Observatory For Human Rights said

The Observatory for Human Rights added that the FSA and the Islamic State have had violent exchanges in several areas of Syria over the past few weeks, showing growing antagonism between Assad's foes.

"Last Friday, the Islamic State killed an FSA rebel in Idlib province and cut his head off. There have been attacks in many provinces," the Observatory's Rami Abdelrahman said.

FSA Supreme Command Political Coordinator Louay Mekdad said Mr Hamami and his brother were shot dead at the roadblock by Abu Ayman al Baghdadi, the Islamic State's Emir of the coastal region.

He said a fighter who was travelling with them was set free to rely the message that the Supreme Command was now an al Qaeda target.

"If these people came to defend the Syrian revolution and not help the Assad regime, then they have to hand over the killers," Mr Mekdad said.

Syria's conflict turned violent in the face of a crackdown on protests. Civil war ensued with disparate rebel groups taking up arms and the Observatory says more than 100,000 people have been killed.

The FSA and the jihadists have sometimes joined forces on the battlefield but the divisions have been highlighted as the West considers arming the FSA and some Gulf states have funnelled weapons to the Islamists.

US congressional committees are holding up plans to arm the rebels because of fears that such deliveries will not be decisive and the arms might end up in the hands of Islamist militants.(Courtesy:Sky News)