US-backed Syrian rebels lose more ground to Al Nusra Front

Three more villages fall in Idlib, while anti-ISIL battle in Iraq sees army take control of most of Baiji.

Tribal fighters take part in an intensive security deployment against ISIL militants in the town of Amriyat Al Falluja in Iraq’s Anbar province. Reuters / November 5, 2014

BEIRUT // Al Qaeda’s affiliate Al Nusra Front has seized three more villages from other Syrian rebel groupss, including one backed by the US, in Idlib.

Al Nusra took control of Sufuhun, Al Fateera and Hizareen in the north-western province, the Syrian Observatory for Human rights said on Friday.

The advances were the latest by Al Nusra against moderate and Islamist rebels in the province after clashes that began a week ago, and came a day after US airstrikes hit two Al Nusra compounds in Idlib.

Three villages had been under the control of various rebel groups including the Hazm movement, which has received US-made weapons, said the Britain-based Observatory, which collects information from activists inside Syria.

Last week, Al Nusra seized the town of Khan Al Subul from Hazm and the Idlib bastion of another western-backed rebel grouping, the Syria Revolutionaries Front.

It is not known whether Al Nusra has seized the US-made TOW anti-tank missiles received by Hazm.

Elsewhere in Syria, clashes between regime forces and Islamist fighters in southern Syria killed at least 40 people on Thursday, the Observatory said.

The monitor said at least 26 members of the pro-regime National Defence Forces and 14 Islamist fighters, including from Al Nusra, were killed in Beit Tima, a majority-Druze region.

There has been fighting between regime and rebel forces in the region, in south-eastern Damascus province, for more than a year, but Thursday’s toll was the highest in a single day since violence began there.

Syrian moderate and Islamist rebels have in the past allied with Al Nusra in battles against both the Syrian regime and extremist militant group ISIL.

But since July, sporadic clashes have erupted between the Al Qaeda affiliate and other rebel groups, particularly in Idlib.

The fighting began shortly after Al Nusra’s chief announced the group’s intention to establish an Islamic “emirate,” intended to rival the “caliphate” established by ISIL, which has overrun large areas of Syria and Iraq and is being targeted in airstrikes by a US-led international coalition.

The US military central command said on Friday that the colaition conducted eight airstrikes against ISIL in Syria in the past three days and six in Iraq.

Seven strikes near the Syrian border town of Kobani, a regular target for the attacks, hit three small ISIL units, seven fighting positions and destroyed an artillery piece. The town on the Turkish-Syrian border is being defended against an ISIL onslaught by Kurdish fighters, including Iraqi peshmerga who entered the weeks-long battle earlier this week.

Another strike near Tall Abyad destroyed a weapons stockpile.

In Iraq, an airstrike near Fallujah destroyed two bulldozers, while strikes near Ramadi, south-east of Fallujah and north-west of Haditha destroyed or damaged ISIL vehicles, the central command said.

The coalition also hit a small ISIL unit and damaged a building near the strategic northern town of Baiji, where Iraqi forces said they had made major gains against ISIL on Friday.

Government troops now hold “more than 70 percent” of the Baiji – including neighbourhoods in the south, east and north – and are battling to capture the rest, a senior Iraqi officer said.

A brigadier general said “major progress” had been made in Baiji, and the Iraqi flag had been raised over important buildings including the police headquarters.

However, a senior police officer was killed when a bomber detonated an explosives-rigged tanker truck at a checkpoint in the Al Sinai area of Baiji that was retaken more than a week ago. Three other policeman died along with Major General Faisal Ahmed, and six were wounded.

Iraqi forces entered Baiji, which had been under ISIL control for months, on October 31 after fighting their way up from the south.

Baiji lies on the main highway to Iraq’s ISIL-controlled second city Mosul, and the town’s recapture would also help to further isolate militants in the city of Tikrit, to the south.

The Baiji assault could also open the way to breaking a months-old jihadist siege of government forces defending Iraq’s largest oil refinery, which is located near the town.

* Agence France-Presse