70 killed as Syria factions clash

Fighting reflects strained relations between militants

BEIRUT // Dozens of extremists have been killed in clashes between two militant factions in north-west Syria, raising fears of more deadly violence ahead of UN-brokered peace talks this month.

The fighting between the Al Qaeda-led coalition known as the Levant Liberation Committee and the extremist Jund Al Aqsa group killed about 70 fighters in some of the fiercest clashes in years.

The fighting centred in areas where the central province of Hama joins the north-western province of Idlib. A Syrian rebel commander speaking from Turkey said Jund Al Aqsa had recently proven itself to be a branch of ISIL, which was the arch-rival of Al Qaeda’s Fatah Al Sham Front. The commander said Jund Al Aqsa fighters stormed several areas controlled by the Levant Liberation Committee and killed some of its members.

“There is no solution but to uproot Jund Al Aqsa,” the commander said. Idlib province is held almost entirely by opposition factions, and was captured by an alliance of fighters called the Army of Conquest, led by Fatah Al Sham.

Jund Al Aqsa is reviled by most rebels in the region, and is designated a terrorist group by the US. Despite that, in October Fatah Al Sham announced it had taken Jund Al Aqsa under its wing, although clashes between the two groups erupted shortly afterwards.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the Syrian war, reported that the Levant Liberation Committee has captured six villages from Jund Al Aqsa so far, and lost 39 soldiers. Jund Al Aqsa lost 30 soldiers, including four suicide bombers who blew up their vehicles.

Abdul-Rahim Attoun, a senior Al Qaeda official in Syria, said Jund Al Aqsa was blocking roads used by the Levant Liberation Committee to attack government forces.

The fighting reflects the growing strained relations between different factions in Idlib province that once fought alongside each other against president Bashar Al Assad’s forces.