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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Details after Al-Nusra, Allies Repel ISIL's Attack on Syria's al-Bukamal as Death Toll Hits 86 |
| 2014-04-12 |
| [AnNahar] Syria's al-Qaeda affiliate and its allies have repulsed an assault by jihadist rivals on a town on the Iraqi border in fighting that killed 86 people, a monitoring group said Friday. Sixty of the dead were fighters of al-Nusra Front or its Islamist allies killed pushing back their Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant ... the current version of al-Qaeda in Iraq, just as blood-thirsty and well-beloved as the original... (ISIL) rivals from districts of al-Bukamal they had captured early Thursday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman told Agence La Belle France Presse the rebels regained full control of al-Bukamal after reinforcements poured in. ISIL withdrew to the T2 oil site, 60 kilometers (35 miles) southwest of the town and where a Syria-Iraq pipeline runs, he said, after executing seven fighters of a rival Islamist brigade. The border crossing itself on Syria's side remains in the hands of the mainstream rebel Free Syrian Army ... the more palatable version of the Syrian insurgency, heavily influenced by the Moslem Brüderbund... , said a rebel chief and an Agence La Belle France Presse news hound on the Iraqi side who saw the FSA flag flying over it. With their attack on al-Bukamal, ISIL fighters wanted to link up with their comrades over the border in Iraq, said Abdel Rahman. Al-Bukamal has been under the control of fighters opposed to the Damascus regime since November 2012, but al-Nusra and its allies forced out former ISIL allies in heavy fighting in late February. Thousands were killed in battles in several regions of Syria in January and February pitting ISIL against its rivals and nominal allies in the anti-Assad revolt. The Euphrates valley town of al-Bukamal had a population of some 70,000 before the start of the Syrian conflict which the Observatory says has cost more than 150,000 lives since March 2011. Syrian troops now control just one official crossing on the Iraqi border -- al-Tanaf/al-Walid, on the main highway to Storied Baghdad. A third crossing, Yarabiyah/Rabia in the northeast, is held by Kurdish militia. |
| Posted by:trailing wife |
| #2 during 2014 al nusra and ISIL have each suffered at least 400 fatalies that's a lot given that neither has a force numbering over 10k (although they recruit continuously) |
| Posted by: lord garth 2014-04-12 22:32 |
| #1 IMO, a pic of Assad Jr laughing his head off would be nice. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2014-04-12 16:51 |