Militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant overran the Syrian town of A’zaz near the border with Turkey on Wednesday after fighting broke out with units of the Arab and Western-backed FSA
Militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant affiliated with al Qaeda overran the Syrian town of A’zaz near the border with Turkey on Wednesday after fighting broke out with units of the Arab and Western-backed Free Syrian Army.
The militants killed at least five Free Syrian Army insurgents and held around 100 others captive after storming the town, 5 km (2 miles) from the Syrian-Turkish border, the so-called opposition said.
The fighting was the most severe since tensions mounted earlier this year between the militant factions in Syria.
A’zaz is 20 miles north of Aleppo, once Syria's commercial and industrial hub. A’zaz is also adjacent to al-Salamah, a border crossing with Turkey.
On the other hand, media sources said that the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militants had slaughtered earlier a number of FSA militants, in Al-Bab city, northeast of Aleppo, after it announced that the FSA are agents of the Syrian government and should be crushed.
Wednesday’s fighting broke out at A’zaz’s al Ahli hospital when Islamic State fighters attempted to detain a doctor, medical staff and activists said. The Northern Storm Brigade, a more moderate rebel group that controlled the hospital, refused.
“They claimed they wanted to take him for interrogation, but Northern Storm wouldn’t allow it. This is when the clashes started,” said Abel Hamid al-Hussain, a doctor who works in a hospital about five miles away and who treated four of the wounded.
Hussain said that the Syrian-German doctor was working with a German charity and that his fate was unknown. A nurse was also detained, Hussain said.
Opposition sources said two Free Syrian Army units, Liwa al-Fath and Liwa al-Tawhid, based in Aleppo, had sent reinforcements to the Salamah crossing to defend it against a possible al-Qaeda strike.
Lebanon has sought information for more than a year about nine Lebanese Shiites held captive by militants in A’zaz.
