Nusra Front Loses Ground to ISIL on Iraq Border

Al-Qaeda affiliated group operating in Syria, Nusra Front, lost ground to its terrorist rivals around a town on the Iraqi border on Thursday in heavy fighting that left 24 people dead, reports said.

The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said insurgents of the “the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant” (ISIL) launched a three-pronged assault on positions held by Nusra Front and its allies.

ISIL militants were driven out of Albu Kamal in heavy fighting earlier this year and are seeking to link up with their comrades over the border in Iraq, the monitoring group chief Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.

“Since dawn there has been fierce fighting inside Albu Kamal. ISIL is advancing and has taken control of several neighborhoods of the town which were previously held by Al-Nusra Front and Islamist brigades,” he said.

Albu Kamal has been under the control of insurgents fighting the Syrian government since November 2012 but Nusra Front and its allies forced out ISIL fighters in heavy fighting earlier this year.

Extremists fighting the Syrian government have been since January 2013 engaged in an infighting that killed and injured hundreds of militants.

Source: Al-Manar