AFP, Beirut :
Syria’s Al-Qaeda affiliate and allied rebels pushed offensives around northern, central and coastal Syria on Monday, triggering a spike in violence that could threaten a truce ahead of peace talks, a monitoring group said.
The Islamic State (IS) group also took back control of the town of Al-Rai near Turkey, which rival rebels had captured last week, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Neither the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Al-Nusra Front nor IS are included in a truce brokered by the United States and Russia that came into force on February 27.
But the fact that rebels are fighting alongside Al-Nusra in such a broad offensive, while regime forces push back, has sparked concerns over the durability of the shaky truce.
“Al-Nusra and allied rebel groups are waging three synchronised offensives” on front lines in Aleppo, Hama and Latakia provinces, Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.
So far, they have seized a hilltop in Latakia province, the heartland of President Bashar al-Assad’s Alawite sect, the group said.
“This is the offensive that Al-Nusra warned it would carry out several weeks ago,” Abdel Rahman said. He was referring to a threat issued by the jihadist group when President Vladimir Putin, a key backer of Assad’s regime, announced the partial pullout of Russian troops from Syria last month.
Meanwhile, Islamic State militants took back a stronghold in Syria near the border with Turkey on Monday, four days after losing it to a grouping of rebels, a monitoring group said. The ultra-hardline Islamist group seized the town of al-Rai from factions fighting under the banner of the Free Syrian Army, part of months of back-and-forth fighting in northern Aleppo province, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.
Islamic State has declared a cross-border Islamic caliphate in Syria and neighboring Iraq and is also battling other insurgent groups caught up in Syria’s civil war, some of them backed by Turkey and Western powers.
Syria’s Al-Qaeda affiliate and allied rebels pushed offensives around northern, central and coastal Syria on Monday, triggering a spike in violence that could threaten a truce ahead of peace talks, a monitoring group said.
The Islamic State (IS) group also took back control of the town of Al-Rai near Turkey, which rival rebels had captured last week, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Neither the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Al-Nusra Front nor IS are included in a truce brokered by the United States and Russia that came into force on February 27.
But the fact that rebels are fighting alongside Al-Nusra in such a broad offensive, while regime forces push back, has sparked concerns over the durability of the shaky truce.
“Al-Nusra and allied rebel groups are waging three synchronised offensives” on front lines in Aleppo, Hama and Latakia provinces, Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.
So far, they have seized a hilltop in Latakia province, the heartland of President Bashar al-Assad’s Alawite sect, the group said.
“This is the offensive that Al-Nusra warned it would carry out several weeks ago,” Abdel Rahman said. He was referring to a threat issued by the jihadist group when President Vladimir Putin, a key backer of Assad’s regime, announced the partial pullout of Russian troops from Syria last month.
Meanwhile, Islamic State militants took back a stronghold in Syria near the border with Turkey on Monday, four days after losing it to a grouping of rebels, a monitoring group said. The ultra-hardline Islamist group seized the town of al-Rai from factions fighting under the banner of the Free Syrian Army, part of months of back-and-forth fighting in northern Aleppo province, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.
Islamic State has declared a cross-border Islamic caliphate in Syria and neighboring Iraq and is also battling other insurgent groups caught up in Syria’s civil war, some of them backed by Turkey and Western powers.
