Al-Qaida fighters attack 2 Syrian towns

The al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front and like-minded groups unleashed a wide-scale offensive on Sunday against two pro-government towns in the countryside of the northern province of Aleppo, in a bid to connect areas under their control with each other, a monitoring group reported.
The Nusra Fighters and other extremist groups unleashed their offensive overnight against the towns of Nubul and Zahra, both adjacent and inhabited by the Shiite minority, to whom the ruling elite's Alawite minority belongs.
The terror groups' fighters succeeded on Sunday to seize control of the factories area in the southern part of Zahra, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The most fierce clashes erupted when the Nusra fighters attacked the al-Halabi orchard north of Nubul to divert the attention of the National Defense Forces (NDF), a pro-government armed militia.
The Observatory said the aim of the attack is for the Nusra to control the eastern part of Zahra, which is located on the middle of the road that connects the towns of Handarat and Mayer through the towns of Hayan and Bayanun, all under the extremist group's control.
At least eight fighters of the Nusra were reportedly killed during the attack along with unknown number of the NDF fighters.
The two predominantly Shiite towns have for long been besieged by the radical rebel groups, and humanitarian organizations have taken pains to deliver aids there.
The long-running conflict in Syria has pitted the extremist Sunni rebels against other sects, mainly the Shiite and its Alawite offshoot.