Hundreds of Syria Terrorists Killed in Internal Clashes: ISIL Declares War on Rivals, Al-Nusra Calls for Ceasefire
Local Editor
Leader of an al-Qaeda affiliated group in Syria has called for a ceasefire with another al-Qaeda-inspired movement, after internecine clashes between various extremist factions resulted in hundreds of deaths in less than a week.
"The foreigners and supporters will pay the price for losing this great fighting field. The West and the Shiites will find a place to enter into this battle," said a recorded message from Abu Mohammed Golani, the head of the Nusra Front, posted on the organization's Twitter feed.
He further stated: "This unfortunate situation has pushed us to launch an initiative to save the battlefields from being lost. This will be done by forming an independent legal counsel by all the rebel factions in addition to a ceasefire."
Internecine fighting broke out on Friday in the province of Aleppo, after the so-called "Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant" [ISIL] killed a local doctor.
There had been previous resentment towards the group - staffed predominantly with non-Syrian fighters - for the harsh regime it has imposed on controlled areas in the country, since entering the war last year. ISIL is also engaged in conflict in Fallujah in neighboring Iraq, which it plans to unite with Syria to form a caliphate.
Al-Nusra, which also shares al-Qaeda ideology but is composed mostly of local fighters, united with several other splinter groups to carry out reprisals against ISIL throughout the country.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights revealed that more than 270 armed groups fighters have already perished in the clashes, with heavy casualties on both sides.
ISIL does not appear to be set to leave the country, accusing its erstwhile allies of being "enemies of Allah who are fighting us via the media" in a message on its Facebook page.
In response, the so-called "Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant" called members of the opposition so-called "Syrian National Coalition" a "legitimate target" in an audio message from an ISIL spokesperson.
In the message, published on a website, Abu Mohammed al-Adnani said that ISIL considers the opposition Syrian National "Coalition and national council and the chief of staff and military council [to] have declared and begun a war on it."
"Everyone who belongs to this entity is a legitimate target for us, in all places, unless he publicly declares his rejection of that group and of fighting the mujahedeen."
Al-Adnani also urged ISIL fighters in Syria to "crush them [the rivals] totally and kill the conspiracy at birth," warning opposition fighters that "none of you will remain, and we will make of you an example to all those who think of following the same path."
The disunity among opposition forces, and the ever-increasing prominence of extremists, is particularly ominous in view of the Geneva Talks coming up later this month, for which the opposition has previously failed to form a representative coalition.
The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, which intermittently published the death tolls from the conflict, which has lasted nearly three years, says it will no longer do so. The body, which has no officials on the ground, says it relied on data from six different non-governmental organizations in the country, but that recently the number of reliable sources has dwindled to between two and three.
"It was always a very difficult figure," Rupert Colville, a spokesman for the UN body said.
"It was always very close to the edge in terms of how much we could guarantee the source material was accurate. And it reached a point where we felt we could no longer cross that line. So for the time being, we're not updating those figures."
Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team
