 | Wars in the World |
Daily News on Wars in the World and on New States
| FOLLOW US ON: FACEBOOK X FLIPBOARD TELEGRAM |
A key commander of the U.S.-backed Free Syrian Army was killed recently by Syria’s al-Qaeda rebels, a sign the opposition to the Bashar al-Assad regime is fracturing and Islamist rebels are on the rise.
Kamal Hamami, the FSA commander, was killed as he went to a meeting of al-Qaeda-backed rebels to discuss joint operations against the Syrian army, a U.S. official said, confirming Middle East press reports.
At least 29 people have been killed in fighting between Kurdish and Al-Nusra Front fighters in northern Syria in the past two days, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Thursday.
At least 19 Al-Nusra Front fighters and 10 Kurds have been killed since the day before yesterday in clashes in the oil region of Hassakeh,” the NGO said.
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has confirmed the death in a US drone strike of its deputy leader Saeed al-Shehri, whose killing has been announced a number of times by Yemeni authorities.
“Sheikh Saeed al-Shehri, aka Abu Sufyan al-Azdi, was killed in a US drone strike,” said a leader in Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, Ibrahim al-Rubaish in a video posted on Islamist websites Wednesday.
The Free Syrian Army (FSA) and al-Qaeda-linked fighters have clashed again, just days after a leader of the FSA was shot dead at a checkpoint after a row between fighters from the two groups.
Activists told Al Jazeera that the FSA and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) on Saturday fought for control of a strategic checkpoint in Aleppo city’s Bustan al-Qasr district, a strategic gateway between rebel and government controlled territory.
A powerful car bomb exploded in a Hezbollah stronghold in the southern suburbs of Beirut on Tuesday, wounding at least 53 people in the most troubling sign yet that Syria’s civil war is beginning to consume its smaller neighbor.
The blast in the heart of the Shiite militant group’s bastion of support raised the worrying specter of Lebanon being pulled into the violent Sunni-Shiite struggle in the region, with sectarian killings similar to those plaguing Syria and Iraq.