Special to WorldTribune.com

NICOSIA — The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant has formed a corridor from Syria to Iraq.

Opposition sources said ISIL, deemed the most powerful Al Qaida franchise in the Middle East, has captured a swathe of territory from the northern city of Aleppo to the Iraqi border. They said the corridor would enable a flow of fighters and weapons from Syria to Iraq.

“We plan to establish an Islamic emirate in the Levant,” ISIL commander Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi said.

On June 9, around 50 people were killed in fighting between ISIL and
rival Islamist militias in the eastern Syrian province of Dir Al Zour. The
Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the fighting centered on ISIL and
its Al Qaida rival, Nusra Front for the Defense of the Levant.

“Nusra Front and the Islamic battalions recaptured the Kharrata oil
station in southwest Dir Al Zour after violent clashes with ISIL, while the
clashes have continued between the two parties near the station,” Syrian
Observatory said.

Opposition sources said ISIL intensified efforts to form a corridor
amid the Sunni revolt in Iraq. They said ISIL has sent thousands of fighters
from Syria to join the anti-government offensive in Iraq’s Anbar province.

Syrian Observatory director Rami Abdul Rahman said neither Nusra nor its
Saudi-financed allies stopped the ISIL campaign in northern Syria. Abu
Rahman said ISIL gained control from the eastern portion of the Aleppo
province to the western sector of Dir Al Zour, which borders Iraq.

The latest ISIL offensive began on June 8 in eastern Dir Al Zour. Syrian
Observatory reported battles in several villages as Nusra and its allies
were driven south.

Abdul Rahman said ISIL was using fighters from Afghanistan and Russia’s
Chechnya for the current advance. He said the Chechens were among the
best-trained and organized units in the Islamist militias.

“These developments mean that Islamist fighters have made no progress in
light of the ISIL advance,” Abdul Rahman told the Saudi-owned A-Sharq Al
Awsat daily.

  Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi, Al Qaida’s ISIL paves a Syria-Iraq corridor, Dir Al Zour, Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, plans ‘Islamic emirate in the Levant’, plans ‘Islamic emirate’