34 jihadists killed after clashes with Syria rebel rivals

At least 34 foreign jihadists from the Islamic State
of Iraq and the Levant and an ally were killed after
clashes with rival Syrian rebels, a watchdog said on
Tuesday.
The jihadists had apparently been executed after
the fighting in the Jabal Zawiya district of the
northwestern province of Idlib, the Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights said.
The fighters, from ISIL and a group called Jund al-
Aqsa, were killed by non-jihadist rebels over the
past few days, the Observatory said.
The deaths came amid fighting on several fronts
pitting several coalitions of rebel fighters against
jihadists from ISIL.
There was renewed fighting on Tuesday in the city
of Raqa, the only provincial capital outside
government control and previously an ISIL
stronghold, the Observatory said.
The fighting centred on the provincial governor’s
office, taken over by ISIL for a headquarters, and
“heavy weaponry was being used.”
Both Islamists and moderate rebels have joined the
fight against ISIL, which has been accused of
kidnapping, torturing and killing rival rebels and
civilians.
The rebels, many of them civilians who took up
arms against the regime, initially welcomed the
arrival of battle-hardened jihadists.
But tensions have mounted, with activists accusing
ISIL of imposing a reign of terror, and rebels saying
the group has focused on accumulating territory and
fighting other rebels rather than battling the regime.
Elsewhere in the country, the Observatory said the
death toll from a government air campaign launched
in Aleppo province in mid-December now topped
600, among them 172 children.
The relentless campaign has included the use of
explosive-packed barrels dropped from aircraft on
residential areas.