Local Editor
Heavy clashes have again flared up between elements of the al-Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front and the insurgents allied with the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in the Syrian city of Raqqa.
The fighting broke out on Saturday between the two terrorist groups in the city located on the border of Syria and Turkey.
The development comes after al-Nusra militants shot and killed a Saudi ISIL terrorist in the city after he refused to stop at their checkpoint.
Further on Saturday, Al-Qaeda-linked militants in Syria seized a base belonging to the so-called Free Syrian Army (FSA), as infighting grows among foreign-backed militants in the Arab country.
Pro-Qaeda militants also seized arms that had been brought from Turkey.
Over the past year, thousands of foreign militants have poured into Syria to fight government forces.
Analysts from an arm of the British defense consultant IHS Jane’s and from a nonprofit think tank in London estimate that over 15,000 foreign militants, including Americans and Europeans, are fighting against the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
In recent days, Western diplomats have warned that the issue of more than a thousand terrorists who have come from Europe to fight in Syria has turned into “a serious concern” for the countries they come from.
Last month, US Senator Thomas Carper confirmed during a Senate homeland security committee hearing that “American citizens as well as Canadian and European nationals have taken up arms in Syria, in Yemen and in Somalia.”
The US and some of its allies, including Saudi Arabia, openly support the militancy in Syria.
More than 100,000 people have been killed since the beginning of the conflict in Syria in March 2011.The prolonged militancy has also forced millions of Syrians to flee their homes.
– See more at: http://en.alalam.ir/news/1542660#sthash.no9XGzM1.dpuf
