Fighting among Syrian rebels spreads

In Raqqa, compound of al-Qaida-tied group surrounded, 50 held by it

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

BEIRUT - Syrian rebels surrounded a compound held by al-Qaida-linked fighters and freed at least 50 people from a nearby prison Monday as clashes between rival factions in the country’s northern provinces spread to the largest city controlled by the opposition.

The rebel-on-rebel fighting in Raqqa - a stronghold of the al-Qaida-linked group known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant - reflects a widening war within a war in Syria, this one against radical extremists. It adds another layer of complexity to the Syrian conflict less than three weeks ahead of a planned international conference intended to broker a political solution to the civil war.

Support from the U.S. and its Western allies for the rebels has faded in the past year as al-Qaida-affiliated groups have risen to become one of the most dominant forces among the patchwork of opposition fighting factions.

Since spring 2013, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant has muscled its way into rebel-held territory across northern Syria, crushing resistance from other factions, seizing their weapons and detaining their fighters. It has kidnapped journalists and abducted activists who are critical of its efforts to impose a strict interpretation of Islam.

For months, sporadic clashes between its fighters and other rebel brigades have left scores dead and hampered the broader movement to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad.

But the latest fighting, which broke out Friday in the northern provinces of Aleppo and Idlib after residents there accused the al-Qaida-linked group of killing a popular doctor, is the most serious since the uprising began in March 2011.

The fighting has since spread to the central province of Hama as well as the northeastern province of Raqqa, and killed an estimated 100 fighters on both sides, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The fighting in the city of Raqqa - the provincial capital - began before dawn Monday, when a coalition of Islamic brigades attacked fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, Observatory director Rami Abdurrahman said. Another activist group, the Local Coordinating Committees, also reported the Raqqa clashes, saying they were focused around a post office.

The Observatory said rebels surrounded the group’s main compound in Raqqa and freed at least 50 detainees from a prison. Abdurrahman said they included fighters and activists imprisoned for criticizing the group.

Abdurrahman estimated that more than 1,000 people are being held in Raqqa province.

Activists said another al-Qaida-linked rebel group, the Nusra Front, was taking part in the fighting in Raqqa against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. However, Abdurrahman said many of the Nusra Front fighters in Raqqa had joined the group from other rebel outfits that had collapsed in the face of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

One of the more moderate rebel groups involved in the fighting elsewhere against the al-Qaida-linked insurgents, the Syrian Revolutionary Front, appeared reluctant to give up the offensive.

The group, a recently formed coalition of rebel brigades aligned with the exiled Syrian opposition, demanded in a statement Monday that the al-Qaida-linked fighters desert and join its ranks.

At the United Nations, Secretary-General Ban Kimoon sent out 20 invitations to the so-called Geneva peace conference, which is to open Jan. 22 in Switzerland. Iran, a close ally of Assad’s that has supplied his government with weapons, funds and military advisers, was not among the nations invited, U.N. spokesman Farhan Haq said.

The U.S. and Russia have not yet agreed on Iran’s role in the talks, but Haq says the U.N. hopes that can be resolved at a meeting next Monday between U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

Kerry said Sunday that for Iran to participate in the conference, it would have to accept the talks’ basic goal of planning for a Syria after the resignation of Assad. But Kerry also said that Iran might informally “contribute from the sidelines,” even if it continued to support Assad.

Elaborating on those remarks Monday, a senior State Department official said there were other steps that Iran could take to show it was ready to help end the conflict.

“Those include calling for an end to the bombardment by the Syrian regime of their own people,” the official said. “It includes calling for and encouraging humanitarian access.”

A second State Department official suggested that Iran could make such entreaties to the Assad government privately.

“Public or private, we’d take it either way at this point,” the official said.

The officials could not be identified under the State Department protocol for talking to reporters.

Information for this article was contributed by Ryan Lucas, Zeina Karam, Diaa Hadid and Peter James Spielmann of The Associated Press and Michael R. Gordon of The New York Times.

Front Section, Pages 6 on 01/07/2014