Syria: Death toll rises in rebel infighting

Rebel-on-rebel clashes have killed nearly 700 people over the past nine days in northern Syria in the worst bout of infighting among the opponents of president Bashar al-Assad since the country’s civil war began, activists said yesterday.

Opposition fighters fire a rocket towards Assad troops in Aleppo. Picture: Getty

The fighting between the al-Qaeda-linked Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and several Islamist and more moderate rebel brigades has broken out in cities, towns and villages of at least four opposition-held provinces in the north. It has added yet another layer of complexity to Syria’s nearly three-year conflict, while also overshadowing the broader battle against the government over the past week.

The violence comes less than two weeks ahead of a planned international conference in Switzerland that aims to broker a political solution to the Syrian war. But the prospects for the peace talks appear grim. Mr Assad has said he will not hand over power, while the Western-backed opposition in exile, known as the Syrian National Coalition, is in disarray and not yet decided whether it will even attend the gathering. Even if it does, it is in no position to wrest concessions from Mr Assad, whose forces have seized the momentum in recent months.

At the start of two-days of meetings in Paris, top envoys from 11 countries that support the coalition were pressuring the group to attend the peace conference, saying the talks were the only path to an end of the carnage. The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights activist group said yesterday that at least 697 people have been killed since the clashes began on 3 January. The toll includes 351 fighters from the Islamist and mainstream opposition brigades, 246 from the “Islamic State,” and 100 civilians.

The al-Qaeda-linked group has alienated other rebel factions and civilians in the territory under its control by using brutal tactics to implement its strict interpretation of Islamic law. It has also kidnapped and killed its opponents.

While the rebel infighting has grabbed the spotlight over the past nine days, the fight against the government has raged on across the country.

In the central city of Homs, government shelling killed more than 20 people on Saturday in the rebel-held Waer neighbourhood, the Observatory said. It warned that the death toll could rise because dozens of people were critically wounded in the bombardment.

Another activist group, the Local Co-ordination Committees, also reported the shelling in Waer. Syrian rebels also have targeted Assad-loyal areas with indiscriminate mortar fire.

Syria’s state media said yesterday that mortar shells fired by rebels killed two people in the pro-government Zahra area of Homs.

The Syrian conflict began in March 2011 with largely peaceful protests against the Assad regime before shifting into an armed insurgency after a brutal government crackdown. It has resulted in the deaths of more than 120,000 people, forced more than two million to flee the country and devastated the nation’s cities, economy and social fabric.