(MENAFN- Arab Times) Islamic State fighters killed at least 37 rival insurgents in an overnight attack in Syria's Aleppo province and 20 fighters remain missing, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Sunday. Rami Abdulrahman, head of the Observatory, said that late on Saturday a suicide bomber from the hardline group blew himself up in a military post held by a group of rival insurgents in the Umm Housh village in northern Aleppo countryside.
Islamic State fighters then seized the village after heavy clashes with rival groups. "The main goal for taking the village is to tighten the noose around Marea which is considered a reservoir for groups that are against the Islamic State," Abdulrahman said. Jihadi groups and Islamist and mainstream groups have been engaged in internecine fighting for more than two years, complicating the fouryear conflict in Syria. The Islamic State group advanced Sunday against rival rebel forces, including Islamists, in a bid to capture a series of key villages in northern Syria, the monitor said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said IS jihadists seized full control of Umm Housh, one of four villages in the northern province of Aleppo that lie along a rebel supply line from Turkey, which is a major backer of Syria's opposition. "IS is trying to seize contro of these villages from rebels to cut their supply route between Aleppo city and its outskirts, and the town of Azaz," a rebel bastion near the border, said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman. He said two IS suicide bombers, one using a suicide belt and one in a bombladen car, began the assault on the villages on Saturday night. The ensuing clashes, which continued throughout Sunday, killed 37 rebel fighters and 10 IS jihadists, Abdel Rahman aladded.
Another 20 rebels were reported missing in action. IS has swept through territory in Iraq and Syria in an effort to build a cross-border "caliphate," and sees both the regime of Bashar al-Assad and rival rebel factions as its enemies. In recent months the Assad regime has suffered major losses in Syria's north and east, as well as near its coastal heartland of Latakia province. On Sunday, a powerful rebel coalition swept through additional villages in the Sahl al-Ghab plain, which borders the provinces of Latakia and Idlib, the Observatory said. The Army of Conquest, which includes Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra Front, has edged closer to the regime's regional military headquarters in Jureen.
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