Militants, Syrian fighters in heavy clashes in northwest

Militants from Al-Qaeda’s former Syria branch and opposition fighters who have recently joined forces against them fought in heavy clashes in the northwest of the country on Friday, an opposition official and a monitoring group said.
In another incident, at least 10 people were killed in Turkish airstrikes and shelling in and around a Syrian town held by the Daesh group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Fighting between Jabhat Fateh Al-Sham, formerly the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front, and more moderate, foreign-backed factions erupted this week in areas west of Aleppo and the adjacent rebel-held province of Idlib.
The clashes, which are taking place separately to the main battle in Syria’s conflict — that between rebels and the Syrian government — threaten to further weaken opposition to President Bashar Assad in the insurgents’ biggest territorial stronghold.
A rebel source said Fateh Al-Sham launched fierce new attacks on Friday.
“A short while ago there was tank bombardment of the base of the headquarters of our brothers in the Jaish Al-Islam (faction) in Babsiqa,” an opposition source in one of the groups involved in the fighting told Reuters.
“Activists are reporting casualties in a camp for women nearby from the tank and mortar bombardment.”
The clashes appeared to take place in two areas of Idlib — one west of Aleppo and close to the Turkish border, and the other south of Idlib city, close to the main highway linking Aleppo to Damascus.
The Observatory said each side was using “heavy weaponry,” and reported a number of civilian casualties.
In towns close to the fighting, several hundred people protested against Fateh Al-Sham for targeting opposition factions, or called for the clashes to stop so civilians would not get hurt, the British-based Observatory said.
Fateh Al-Sham, which routed at least one Free Syrian Army (FSA) faction this week, is now fighting against a number of groups that have joined forces under the powerful Ahrar Al-Sham to fend off the assault.
Ahrar Al-Sham, which presents itself as a mainstream group, sided with the FSA groups and said Fateh Al-Sham had rejected mediation attempts.
Fateh Al-Sham said on Tuesday it had been forced to act preemptively to “thwart conspiracies” being hatched against it.
The groups it has attacked include factions that attended peace talks in Kazakhstan sponsored by Damascus allies Russia and Iran, and rebel backer Turkey.

Turkish fire kills 10
The Turkish bombardment hit the northern town of Al-Bab and the nearby area of Tadif, both held by Daesh, on Thursday, according to the Observatory.
Al-Bab has come under heavy assault in recent weeks, with Turkish, Russian and Syrian warplanes carrying out strikes in or around the town.
The Observatory says it determines whose planes carry out raids according to their type, location, flight patterns and the munitions involved.
Turkish forces regularly carry our airstrikes in support of a ground operation it launched in Syria last August targeting both Daesh and Kurdish fighters. Several this month have been joint operations with Russia.
But Turkish officials insist the utmost is done to avoid any civilian casualties and have vehemently denied claims civilians have been killed in previous strikes.
Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency reported on Friday that 22 Daesh “terrorists” had been killed in the latest round of Turkish strikes on Syria, against a total of 272 Daesh targets.
Daesh is not included in a fragile nationwide cease-fire in force since Dec. 30 that led to peace negotiations jointly organized by Turkey, Russia and Iran in Kazakhstan this week.
There was no major breakthrough in the talks, which brought a government delegation together for indirect talks with representatives of armed groups for the first time.
Ankara has backed opposition groups fighting against Assad since the conflict began with anti-government protests in March 2011.
Moscow and Tehran have supported the government.

Source : Arab News