ISIL Loses Ground to Extremist Rivals on Iraq Border

Local Editor

Syria's al-Qaeda affiliate lost ground to its rivals around a town on the Iraqi border on Thursday in heavy fighting that left 24 people dead, a monitoring group said.

Fighters of the "Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant" [ISIL], a cross-border group which has been disowned by the al-Qaeda leadership, launched a three-pronged assault on positions held by al-Qaeda affiliate al-Nusra Front and its allies, the so-called "Syrian Observatory for Human Rights" said.

ISIL fighters 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, Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said.

"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 the so-called "Islamist" brigades," he said.

A commander loyal to the so-called "Free Syrian Army" said it continued to control the nearby border crossing to the Iraqi town of al-Qaim.
"We are still controlling the border crossing," the commander claimed on condition of anonymity.
"ISIL are attacking our positions in Albu Kamal, and the battles since Wednesday are in three different areas about 15 kilometers from the center of the city. The battles are still continuing."

Albu Kamal has been under the control of fighters opposed to the Damascus regime since November 2012 but al-Nusra and its allies forced out ISIS fighters in heavy fighting earlier this year.

The Euphrates valley town had a pre-war population of some 70,000.
Aother crossing, Yarabiyah/Rabia in the northeast, is controlled by Kurdish militia.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team