Syrian Islamists murders 150 fellow insurgents as battle becomes more bloody
SYRIAN Islamist fighters have killed scores of insurgents in the west of the country in an increasingly bloody battle between different militant groups, the SITE Intelligence Group said.
US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces close in on Raqqa
An offshoot of the Jund al-Aqsa group killed more than 150 members of rebel factions in the village of Khan Sheikhoun in southern Idlib province, the US-based monitoring service reported.
Dozens of those murdered were members of a Free Syrian Army (FSA) faction, it said, citing a pro-al Qaeda social media outlet.
The rest included members of the Tahrir al-Sham alliance, which includes the former al Qaeda branch in Syria, Jabhat Fateh al-Sham.
A bloody battle between Syrian Islamists resulted in the death of 150
Jund al-Aqsa is seen as ideologically close to Islamic State, al Qaeda's main jihadist rival.
Fighting between Jund al-Aqsa and Tahrir al-Sham has flared in the past week, in clashes that war monitors say have killed dozens.
Many of the murdered were member of the Free Syrian Army
Those clashes have added to the complexity of insurgent infighting in the west of the country.
Both Tahrir al-Sham and Jund al-Aqsa are also fighting against FSA rebel factions who have been foreign-backed.
Fighting between the different factions has flared up recently
Jihadist groups attacked the FSA for sending delegates to peace talks in Kazakhstan last month.
Many of those FSA groups are now fighting under the banner of the more moderate but powerful Islamist Ahrar al-Sham.