At least 700 killed in Syria rebel-jihadist battle - NGO
12 January 2014, 16:46
Fierce fighting between jihadists and rival rebel groups in Syria in the past nine days has killed at least 700 and led to the disappearance of hundreds more, an NGO said Sunday. Among those killed were dozens of casualties in 16 suicide attacks staged by the jihadist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), which is battling rebels mainly in northern Syria, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
'From January 3 to 11, the fighting killed 697 people, among them 351 rebel fighters, 246 members of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and 100 civilians,' it said.
Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said the actual number of deaths could be at 'more than 1,000', but his group has been unable to document all the killings given the ferocious nature of the combat.
The Britain-based Observatory, which relies on a network of activists across Syria for its reports, also said there were 'hundreds of captives from both sides whose fate is unknown.'
In a reflection of the brutality of the fighting, which has raged mainly in the northern provinces of Aleppo, Idlib and Raqa but has also hit Hama and Homs in the centre, at least 200 people were killed in one 48-hour period.
Dozens of the killings have been in a wave of suicide attacks by ISIL fighters targeting rival rebel positions.
An ISIL commander had warned rival opposition fighters earlier this week of car bomb attacks if they pressed their offensive against the jihadists.
'Sixteen suicide attackers have detonated themselves in the past week, most of them in car bomb attacks, some using explosive belts,' Abdel Rahman said.
'Dozens of people in Aleppo, Idlib, Homs and Raqa provinces have been killed in such attacks,' he told AFP.
On Saturday alone, 39 rebels were killed in the attacks in Aleppo, Idlib and Raqa provinces, the Observatory said.
A rebel fighter with Ahrar al-Sham, which is leading battles against ISIL in several areas, told AFP 'they use suicide attacks to terrorise society as a whole into submission, not just the fighters.'
'It is one of their most deadly weapons... which they use partly for a lack of other means,' he said in a Skype call on condition of anonymity.
Fighting between the two sides raged in parts of Raqa on Sunday after ISIL managed to seize much of the city, which is the only provincial capital to have fallen out of President Bashar al-Assad's control.
The Observatory cited medical sources as saying there were at least 62 bodies of rebels in Raqa city hospital.
In Aleppo and Idlib, where most car bomb attacks have taken place, the jihadists were on the defencive on Sunday.
Hundreds of ISIL fighters were holed up in their base in Saraqeb in Idlib, a day after rebels captured most of the town.
Assad's army is, meanwhile, trying to take advantage of the infighting to push for more control of Aleppo province.
On Sunday government aircraft dropped explosive-packed barrels on the towns of Al-Bab, killing at least eight people, and Hreitan.
On Saturday loyalist troops seized the rebel town of Naqarin north of Aleppo and pushed toward the industrial part of Syria's second city, activists reported.
But rebels have launched a counter-offensive to recapture Naqarin, the Observatory said.
Meanwhile in the battered central city of Homs, the toll from the army's shelling of Waar district on Saturday rose to 21, the monitoring group said.
More than 130,000 people have been killed in Syria and millions more displaced since March 2011.
On Saturday alone, 232 people were killed nationwide, most of them rebels, jihadists and regime troops.
In Damascus, two more people died of malnutrition in the besieged Yarmuk Palestinian refugee camp, raising the toll of those who succumbed to hunger and medical shortage since September to 43.
Syrian army kills over 40 rebels in Aleppo
More than 40 rebels, most of them are foreigners, according to local media, were killed in a special operation carried out by the Syrian armed forces in Retyan village in the northern countryside of Aleppo.
Rebels' groups were targeted northeast of al-Nnairab airport, in the vicinity of Aleppo central prison and the industrial city and in al-Zarzour, Jdaedieh, Maaret al-Artik and al-Ghali hill, according to a military source.
Two groups were eliminated on the outskirts of the al-Sayyed Ali neighborhood, al-Haidariya area in Aleppo and destroyed their cars, weapons and ammunition.
Rebels clash in North Syria, bodies pile up in hospital - monitors
An al Qaeda affiliate in Syria battled rival rebels across the country's north on Saturday and dozens of bodies piled up in a hospital in an insurgent-held city, a monitoring group said. A week of infighting between the al Qaeda-linked group, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), and other groups including another al Qaeda-affiliated faction has killed hundreds of fighters opposed to President Bashar al-Assad.
Peace talks are planned in Geneva on Jan. 22 between Assad's government and political opponents who demand he step down after almost three years of bloodshed.
But Assad faces little pressure to make concessions after consolidating his grip on Damascus and the centre ofSyria in recent fighting, and the main opposition National Coalition has yet to formally decide whether to attend the talks at all.
On Saturday, rebels moved a convoy including tanks and machinegun-mounted trucks to one of the ISIL's strongholds in the northwestern Idlib province in preparation to push the group out, the Syrian Observatoryfor Human Rights said.
The Britain-based monitoring group, which tracks developments in Syria through a network of military and medical sources, said five rebels were killed when their car hit a landmine outside the town, Saraqeb.
Heavy clashes were taking place around Saraqeb on Saturday, it said.
In Raqqa, the eastern provincial capital which is the only Syrian city under full rebel control, the Observatory said ISIL fighters seized a checkpoint and took over the train station from rival rebels.
In an indication of how heavy the fighting had been in Raqqa in recent days with rival Islamist rebels including some loyal to another al Qaeda affiliate, the Nusra Front, the Observatory quoted medical sources as saying there were dozens of bodies of Islamic State fighters in a hospital.
The ISIL fighters had also dumped the corpses of dozens of their foes in the nearby village of Jazra, to the west of Raqqa, the Observatory said.
The monitoring group said on Friday 500 people had been killed in the rebel fighting which erupted eight days ago
Voice of Russia, Reuters, AFP
Source: voiceofrussia.com/news/2014_01_12/ At-least-700-killed-in-Syria-rebel- jihadist-battle-NGO-9924/
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