Jihadists Fighting Back in North Syria

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Jihadists battling rebels in northern Syria fought Thursday to recover lost turf nearly a week after a new front opened in the conflict gripping the country.

The fighting comes a day after the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) was expelled from Aleppo city by rebels fighting to topple President Bashar Assad.

Meanwhile, a massive car bomb blast in the central province of Hama killed at least 18 people, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Thursday's violence comes nearly a week after rebels launched an all-out attack on ISIL, and almost three years into a war that broke out after Assad's regime launched a brutal crackdown against dissent.

While jihadists were initially welcomed by rebels battling Assad's forces, ISIL became hated because of its systematic abuses and its bid to dominate areas that had fallen out of regime control.

In a counterattack, ISIL launched car bomb assaults late Wednesday against rival rebel checkpoints, the Observatory said.

"At least nine people were killed in a car bomb attack by ISIL on a rebel checkpoint... in al-Bab town" in Aleppo province, Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told Agence France Presse.

He said similar attacks took place in Hreitan and Jarabulus in Aleppo province, and in Mayadeen in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor.

The attacks came after rebels overran ISIL's Aleppo headquarters on Wednesday, as claims emerged that the group had massacred prisoners there.

In Raqa city, fighting raged near the governorate building, which ISIL has for several months used as its headquarters.

While the rebels in Raqa city appeared to be advancing, ISIL was fighting back in the countryside, especially in the border town of Tal Abyad, from which they were expelled earlier this week.

ISIL is believed to be holding hundreds of activists, rival rebels and foreigners including journalists at several bases in Raqa province.

In less than a week, hundreds of fighters on both sides and scores of civilians have been killed.

Activists say Raqa has become "a city of ghosts", with bodies in the streets and people afraid to leave their houses because of the violence.

The fighting has not stopped the main conflict between opposition fighters and the regime.

At least 18 people, among them women and children, were killed in the huge car bombing in Kafat in central Hama province on Thursday, the Observatory said.

Much of the province, including Kafat, is still under regime control, and state television reported the "terrorist" blast, saying 16 people were dead and tens more wounded.

In Aleppo, loyalist warplanes carried out a new air strike on the rebel-held district of Sheikh Maqsud.

A brutal aerial offensive by the regime against Aleppo that started on December 15 has killed hundreds of people, mostly civilians.

In southern Damascus, troops fired rockets at Yarmuk, a Palestinian camp that has been under siege for a year, the Observatory said.

Some 20,000 of its pre-war 170,000 population are trapped with little food and medicine, and reports say 15 people have died from hunger in the camp since September.

On Thursday, the spokesman for the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA described "profound civilian suffering" in the camp.

Chris Gunness said there was "widespread malnutrition" and reports of women dying in childbirth for lack of medical aid.

He urged the Syrian regime and other parties to allow aid into the camp, which is controlled by armed opposition fighters and under a tight Syrian army siege.

Syrian state television meanwhile said an aid convoy carrying 5,000 food parcels had been blocked from entering Yarmuk by "terrorist gangs" who opened fire.

The violence comes less than two weeks away from a slated peace conference in Switzerland.

The fractious opposition National Coalition has postponed a final decision on whether to attend the January 22 talks, but members said Thursday they face international pressure to participate.

"There have been clear signs indicating the Coalition must go to Geneva," said Coalition member Samir Nashar.

But he warned that the Coalition's legitimacy was at stake, amid widespread opposition towards the talks.

"The entire revolutionary movement in Syria is against Geneva," he told Agence France Presse.

Comments 8
Thumb -phoenix1 09 January 2014, 13:45

(1). Nice beginning to this thread, I quote, "Jihadists battling rebels in northern Syria fought Thursday to recover lost turf nearly a week after a new front opened in the deadly conflict gripping the country, a watchdog said.", Unquote. Wow this must be the world turned upside down, a foreigner now trying to wrest control of a land that is not his, but the Syrian's. He is imposing his sick will on a people who fortunately have waken up to their dirty plan, a plan that has nothing to do with the Syrian people's interest, these sick Takfiris, or Jihadists, call them what you may, have only one wish, a reason to keep killing, just like vampire bats, blood is their food.

Missing ArabDemocrat.com 10 January 2014, 01:09

Phoenix1 - ISIS (Dahesh) will be defeated and will be expelled from Syria. The fear barrier they had have been broken. They were feared and hated. Now - they are just hated.

Thumb Mystic 10 January 2014, 01:27

ISIS will destroy the remaining rebel groups, Isis are better equipped, better trained. I'm just happy they are killing each other, makes it easier for the Syrians to win.

Thumb -phoenix1 09 January 2014, 13:46

(2). Well, I hope for the good of the Syrian people, that now that they've awoken, to continue fighting against this utter evil animals and kick them out of their land. In Iraq, Al Maliki is also giving them the Royal Boot treatment, so it's clear, people now know them for what they really are, the boot treatment now is the language best suited for the Takfiris.

Missing canadianadam 10 January 2014, 04:29

I hear you and only hope this doesn't apply to mainstream Sunnis which I fear may be the DNase in Iraq, and I hope the same applies to Hezbollah as an extremist group.

Thumb freethinker 09 January 2014, 13:52

Clearly there are no shortage of people willing to throw their life away... It's sad

Missing abraham 09 January 2014, 15:50

Phoenix, you are so right
The problem is that these rich Arab Nations, having nothing to do, brainwash these poor people by buying their loyalty sending them to Syria or Iraq or Libya, to fight for the sake of anything their masters tell them.
Wake up people

Missing canadianadam 10 January 2014, 04:29

Agreed.